Is Morocco good for a film-locations tour (Game of Thrones, Gladiator)?

Morocco is a genuine bucket-list trip for film buffs, because so many of the desert-and-antiquity epics you grew up on were shot here. The country's dramatic, uncluttered landscapes — dunes, gorges, oases, mud-brick kasbahs that read as ancient anywhere from Rome to Jerusalem — plus low costs and big studios have made it "Ouallywood." For a fan, recognising a real-life location from a favourite film and standing exactly where a famous scene played out is a real thrill, and the route is easy to build.

Aït Benhaddou is the icon. This stunning fortified ksar of earthen towers on the old caravan road is a UNESCO site and a perennial film set: Game of Thrones used it as the slave city of Yunkai (and Daenerys' scenes), and it has stood in for Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven, ancient Thebes in The Mummy, and appears in Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, The Last Temptation of Christ, Babel, Prince of Persia and Alexander, among many others. Wandering up through its lanes to the granary at the top, you'll keep recognising angles from the screen.

Just down the road, Ouarzazate is the production capital, home to two big working studios you can tour: Atlas Studios — the largest film studio in the world by surface area, with standing sets of Egyptian temples, Roman arenas and Tibetan monasteries from films like Gladiator, Cleopatra, The Mummy and Kundun — and CLA Studios nearby. The Cinema Museum in town and the grand Taourirt Kasbah (used on screen too) round out a brilliant film day. Game of Thrones fans should note that Essaouira on the coast played the free city of Astapor, where Daenerys acquired the Unsullied — its ramparts are instantly recognisable.

A natural film-locations route runs Marrakech → over the Tizi n'Tichka pass → Aït Benhaddou → Ouarzazate (studios) → and on into the desert and gorges (Dades, Todra, Merzouga) that feature in countless productions, before looping back. With a knowledgeable driver-guide who knows which scenes were shot where, it doubles beautifully as a classic southern Morocco grand tour — you get the cinema pilgrimage and some of the most spectacular scenery in the country in the same trip.