Is Aït Benhaddou worth the stop?

Of everything in the Ouarzazate area, Aït Benhaddou is the one I will fight for. If you are driving the route between Marrakech and the desert, stopping here is not optional in my book — it is one of the most beautiful and evocative places in all of Morocco. It is a ksar: a fortified village of earthen kasbahs piled up a hillside above a river, built from rammed earth and straw that glows honey-gold in the morning and amber at sunset.

It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, and for good reason — it is one of the best-preserved examples of southern Moroccan earthen architecture, a stop on the old caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech. It is also a film legend: its dramatic silhouette has appeared in Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, Kingdom of Heaven, Game of Thrones and many more. Walking up its lanes, you constantly feel like you have stepped onto a film set, because in a sense you have.

On the ground, you cross the (usually shallow) Ounila river to reach the village — sometimes on stepping stones or sandbags, occasionally getting your feet wet after rain. Then you climb up through the maze of kasbahs and alleys to the old granary at the summit, where the reward is a sweeping panorama over the river valley, the palm groves and the desert beyond. A handful of families still live within the ksar, and there are craft stalls and little cafés along the way. I always advise going early morning or staying for sunset, when the light on the earthen walls is pure magic and the tour-bus crowds are thinnest.

Logistically it sits roughly 30 kilometres from Ouarzazate, an easy detour, and most desert tours from Marrakech build it in. Give yourself a couple of unhurried hours to climb and wander rather than a rushed photo stop — it deserves the time, and it will likely be one of your strongest memories of the whole trip.