Erg Chigaga Sahara Excursion Morocco Cultural Tour
4 days
Age 12+
Availability 0
Erg Chigaga Sahara Excursion Morocco Cultural Tour
Do you want to spend a basic tour as many other people do, or do you want to come with us to see the extraordinary hidden aspect of people and places in Morocco? In a word, through this Erg Chigaga Sahara Excursion Morocco Cultural Tour you will surly experience one of the most amazing adventure hence you will be driven via the Atlas Mountain the North Africa’s greatest mountain range, and on the other side of it you plunge south east into the 125km belt of date-palm oasis that eventually merges into the Sahara near M’hamid El-Ghizlane, worm where you’re going to drive 60km on the dunes to get to Erg Chigaga where you’ll surely choose to drift off to sleep while watching the twinkling stars in mid of an awesome stretch of golden sand sea after dinner. Wake by dawn to watch the sun starting its daily arc with a cool blue morning sky as it replaces the Sahara shadows just before becoming a glowing ball of fire. You exit Erg Chigaga head to north to Taliouine, Taroudant and Marrakech as a final stopover point.
Itinerary day by day
Day 1 : Marrakech – Talouat – Ait Benhadou – Ouarzazate – Agdez – Zagora 07:00
From Marrakech we jump-off to some of Morocco’s most stunning landscapes, set against the soaring peaks of the Atlas Mountains. We drive along craggy cliff tops to tiny Berber villages in the North Africa’s highest mountain range. As long as we drive towards Ait Benhadou we drive over the Tizi n’Tichka pass (2260m/7400ft) to the splendid Glaoui Kasbah in Talouat and the lush green Ounilla Valley all the way to Ait Benhadou, the UNESCO-protected red mud-brick Ksar from the 11th century, where we offer a local lunch experience with a family. While the more scenic route takes you to « Ouallywood » movie studio and the sprawling Taourirt Kasbah. You descend into the Drâa Valley, a 125km belt of palm trees oasis that eventually merges into the Sahara near M’hamid, At Agdez, a classic caravanserai oasis with a still-pristine palmeraie, 17th century ancient mud-brick Kasbah and a secret desert prison then you get to a star attraction of the Drâa valley, Tamnougalt a 16th century fortified Ksar that perched on a hill 6km south of Agdez. Arriving to Zagora.
Day 2 : Zagora – Tamegroute – M’hamid El-Ghizlane – Erg Chigaga Desert
Today, we head to Morocco’s wildest desert via Tamegroute, an unusual place that was once the most important settlement in the Valley of Draa with its green pottery. The Zawiya Naciria is still a site of pilgrimage and refuge for the mentally-ill and a working Quranic school with a library that was once the richest in Morocco of ancient illuminated texts containing 4000 books. Leave Temegroute through a dauntingly bleak landscape of sun-scorched rubble to the end of paved road of M’hamid El-Ghizlane to begin you off-road journey to Erg Chigaga where you’ll surely choose to drift off to sleep while watching the twinkling stars in mid of an awesome stretch of golden sand sea after dinner.
Day 3 : Erg Chigaga Desert – Foum Zguid – Taznakht – Taliouine
Wake by dawn to watch the sun starting its daily arc with a cool blue morning sky as it replaces the Sahara shadows just before becoming a glowing ball of fire. You exit Erg Chigaga heading north to Taliouine via a rough-road out of the desert through the 80s km long dry lake bed of Lac Iriki that made well-known by the Paris-Dakar rally and through the Sahel and Reg to Foum Zguid and then 85km north to Taznakht, a handy stop for a quick bite coffee, petrol and, yes, carpet. Then we head to the struggling village of Taliouine and the African Centre of l’orrouge (red gold) or saffron, the most expensive spice.
Day 4 : Taliouine – Taroudant – Tizi n’Test – Marrakech
From Taliouine to Marrakech via Taroudant that is considered to be one of the most elegant purely Berber towns of Morocco with its majestic, tawny-brown and honey-gold circuit of 7km walls. While you stroll and linger around, note the distinctive, highly beautiful blue veils that many of older local ladies put on. Later on you will be driven via the road that blasted through the high Atlas Mountain by the French in the late 1920s and famed by Tizi n’Test that offer one of the best panoramic drives in morocco. Heading north to Marrakech we will stop over for Tinmal village to visit the 1156-year mosque.
Map
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DepartureMarrakech
