Where can I get the best panoramic views in Morocco?

For sweeping city panoramas, Fes is unbeatable. Climb to the Marinid Tombs or the Borj Nord fortress on the hills above the medina at the end of the day and the entire ancient city spreads beneath you — a vast sea of flat rooftops, minarets and smoke, with the call to prayer rising from a thousand mosques at once. It is one of the great views in the Arab world. Above Chefchaouen, the Spanish Mosque viewpoint gives you the whole blue town cupped in its green Rif valley, a fifteen-minute walk that everyone should do.

In the mountains, Morocco’s great passes are roadside grandstands. The Tizi n’Tichka (2,260m) on the Marrakech–Ouarzazate road and the higher, wilder Tizi n’Test serve up endless switchbacks with the High Atlas falling away in every direction. The Todra and Dades gorges further east are vertical-walled canyons — the viewpoint over the “monkey fingers” rock formations and the snaking Dades road is a classic photo. From Ait Benhaddou, climb to the granary at the top of the kasbah for a panorama over the ksar, the palm-fringed river and the Anti-Atlas beyond.

The desert offers a different kind of vista. At Erg Chebbi near Merzouga, hike up the tallest dune at dawn and you look out over an ocean of sand ridges turning gold, with the Algerian horizon shimmering far away — a true edge-of-the-world feeling. The Agafay stone desert near Marrakech gives a panorama of grey lunar hills with the snow-tipped Atlas behind, much closer to the city. And for sheer drama, the Legzira and Sidi Ifni cliffs on the southern Atlantic drop straight into the ocean.

My favourite easy wins are the rooftop terraces. In Marrakech, a medina rooftop at sunset frames the Koutoubia minaret against a pink sky, and on a clear winter day the snow-capped Atlas floats on the horizon behind the city — a view that genuinely stops people mid-sentence. In Essaouira and Rabat the ramparts give you the Atlantic. My tip everywhere: the golden hour just before sunset turns every one of these panoramas to its best, so plan your climb or drive to arrive then.