Ouarzazate to Marrekech: Week 2 / Day 10 / Jan 20
Ouarzazate, Morocco: Our day started with a trip to Atlas Studios located in Ouarzazate. This film studio has been used in a surprising number of productions including The Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator, Babel, and Game of Thrones. Admission was nominal and we engaged one of the guides hanging around the entrance at a very reasonable rate. We were taken through a number of different sets / film areas that have been used in a variety of productions. It took me an embarrassingly long time to catch on to the fact that absolutely everything was fake. Each time I saw a new village with stone walls or a marble column I would think it was real. And then, after hitting it, realize that it was just painted plaster. Shown below are a series of pictures that portray a Chinese temple, an Egyptian throne room, a village in ancient Israel, and other locations.
The two pictures below show the studio gate and the cage used to transport Russell Crowe in Gladiator.
Following our visit to the studio, we headed out of Ouarzazate towards Marrakech. One of the things we had seen previously near Ouarzazate was the tower of the Noor Power Station. A single tower rises from the desert floor surrounded by mirrors which reflect sunlight onto the tower. If you look carefully at it, you can see the rays of the sun reflected up towards the central tower illuminating the sand.
I should also note upon mentioning the sand, that it was quite windy that day. The wind had kicked up in the area and created small sand storms everywhere.
Our next stop for the day was at Aït Benhaddou, a complex of fortified buildings making up an entire mud-structure city.
Having seen several others use the stone path over the river, I decided to eschew the normal bridge and press my luck regarding liquid mishaps.
Shockingly, I stayed dry and we continued on up through the complex (although later in the car, I did open a bottle of soda we had just purchased – soda everywhere! Not sure if that counts). Many families still live there and several of the buildings are currently shops, hotels and restaurants.
We overheard one of the guides telling people that the compound has had members of the Benhaddou family living there continuously since it was built.
The emblem on the door on the left indicates that a Berber family lives there.
Looking down from the top of the complex we could see the sand storms again.
On the topic of the sand I am forced to agree with one of history’s deepest, yet oft misunderstood, thinkers:
Leaving Aït Benhaddou we continued further up into the Atlas Mountains. Several times along the way we stopped at turnouts to look at the valley below. Once again, it was striking how much the greenery and communities would spring up around the smallest of water sources.
Within the mountains we next visited Kasbah Telouet. This kasbah was built and rebuilt several times over the centuries. The oldest sections were in such disrepair that they could not be visited. But, the most recent section was built in the 19th century, and was able to be walked through.
As with the other kasbahs, the detail in the work is amazing. Here we were told by the guide that the detailed “plaster” work is, in fact, made of egg white mixed with marble dust. The artisans must work quickly when making their carvings as it dries to rock hard in about 15 minutes and cannot be worked at that point. Also, they work without molds, guides, or stencils, instead working freehand. As someone who has failed every time I have tried to draw a banner freehand (big letters up front, tiny small stuff crammed at the end), I am in awe of their skill.
The main quarters where most of these pictures are taken were those of the pasha. He had five official wives who slept in one part of the kasbah and eighty five concubines who slept in different quarters (insert “I got 99 problems” joke here). The colored panels in the first picture below are silk wall coverings. The remaining pictures show the view from the “Pasha’s television”, where he could sit and watch his lands or any sporting contests (today a soccer field, previously used for horseback and shooting contests).
In the detailed panels, you can see the different colors used coming from local materials: blue – indigo, red – poppy, yellow – henna.
We finished our tour of the kasbah and continued on to Marrakech.
