Today, we got to explore a fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s been on my list since we arrived in Morocco in early January.
Aït Benhaddou is a striking 17th-century Ksar (fortified mud village) located in Morocco’s Ounila Valley. It’s easily the best-preserved Ksar in the entire country and still home to five families. The city is made entirely of rammed-earth brick, giving it its distinctive color and appearance.
Our Euro-African Journey (So Far...)
Aït Benhaddou was an important caravan stop between Marrakech and Timbuktu, boasting over 1,000 inhabitants at that time. More recently, it’s appeared as a feature backdrop in numerous movies such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and the Mummy.
This morning, I awoke to this view out our guesthouse room window.
The wind blew and howled throughout the night and temperatures dipped into the thirties. Lori, the hearty and masochistic soul that she is, woke up before dawn to catch the sunrise from the rooftop terrace. The boys and I opted to remain in the comfort of our quarters until breakfast.
Even at 7am, we still got a pretty good show.
We’re staying at La Fibule d’Or, which is a former Kasbah-turned-guesthouse. Rooms are basic but comfortable, and the views from the rooftop terrace are worth it, alone.
Most of the lodging along our route has breakfast included in the room rate, which is a particularly welcome bonus during Ramadan when many eateries are closed during daylight hours.
It was a delicious and filling Moroccan spread that fueled our explorations for a surprising length of time.
After breakfast, it’s a short walk to the historic Ksar.
To get from town to the Ksar means crossing the river. There’s a permanent concrete bridge a ways up the street. But here in March, the river is easily crossed on foot via a seasonal sandbag-and-plank bridge.
It’s a little confusing figuring out how to get into the Ksar from here. It was originally built to keep out invaders, so there are only a few ways in.
There are two free entrances that provide direct access to the village alleyways. The other entrances lead into museums where a small donation is requested.
Not wanting to walk all the way up the hill to the free entrance, we chose one of the museum entrances, which turned out to be a good choice. There’s lots to see inside these places and not a lot of other opportunities throughout the rest of the Ksar to peek inside the various buildings.
Exploring the Kasbah building was one of the highlights of our day in the Ksar.
In addition to the museums and residences of the five families still living here, there are also a number of small cafes and souvenir shops scattered throughout the village.
The entire village was constructed on the side of a steep hill, so we definitely got our stair workout for the day (probably several days’ worth).
We’re well into Ramadan now and most Moroccans are fasting from sun-up to sun-down. Cafes in tourist areas like the Marrakesh Medina and here in Aït Benhaddou still serve tea and coffee during this time to non-Muslims.
The view from this particular place looked like one of the best in the Ksar, but we couldn’t enjoy it without ordering something, so we got a mint tea.
Later, in true tourist-trap fashion, we were compelled to walk through the guy’s trinket shop on our way to the exit. We weren’t planning on getting anything and stood by that, but he put on a pretty hard sell. At least we got some fun pictures out of it.
We had been waiting all morning for the wind to die down so we could climb the monolith facing the Ksar for a nice view. In the heart of the village, it seemed as if the wind had completely calmed, only to discover halfway up to the viewpoint that the massive hill behind the village had been blocking the 30mph blasts.
Noe, always on the lookout for silver coins. We’ve got quite the coin collector on our hands.
Anytime the boys see a small rushing stream and a tunnel, they immediately want to make a little boat out of reeds and send it through. The simple pleasures of being 7 and 9.
On our first night, we had Chinese food. It sounded like a nice change of pace from Moroccan, but was also the only place in town open before sundown.
Today, we were able to push off our eating a bit later for a delicious, post-sundown meatball tagine and mixed skewer set at Passage Restaurant—easily one of the best Moroccan dinners we’ve had in a couple of weeks.
