Tizi n'Tichka Pass · part 3

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Tizi n Tichka

   The Tizi n'Tichka is the high road across the Atlas, the route that takes the main Marrakech to Ouarzazate highway over the crest of the mountains at about 2,260 metres. Below you, valleys of red earth and green terraced fields drop away toward the Sahara, and above you the bare slopes are patched with snow until late spring. In the Berber language tizi means pass, and the name has the sound of the wind itself.

   Read the complete Tizi n Tichka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tizi n Tichka is where the day begins. Next is Ouarzazate.

2. 2. Ouarzazate

   Ouarzazate is a town built where the High Atlas gives way to the desert, and the light there is so strong and clear that the film industry came to rely on it. It sits on a high plateau at the southern foot of the mountains, with the pale red earth and flat-topped hills of southern Morocco spreading out in front, and it has been the location for films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and numerous others. Huge studio complexes on the edge of town offer visits, with sets of ancient Egypt and Tibet standing in the dust, but the real attraction lies in the kasbahs.

   Read the complete Ouarzazate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ouarzazate comes up about 87 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Tizi n Tichka.

3. 3. back through Tizi n Tichka

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tizi n Tichka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 175 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Tizi n Tichka. Next is back through Taddart.

4. 4. back through Taddart

   Taddart is a high-country village on the southern side of the Tizi n'Tichka, the road that carries traffic over the High Atlas between Marrakech and Ouarzazate. The pass itself is about 2,260 metres, among the highest paved crossings in North Africa, and the road descends on the south side into a dry, rocky world of clay-coloured villages, terraced fields and palm oases. Taddart lies in that southern descent, where the air warms and the greens turn to ochre.

   Read the complete Taddart write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Taddart, late in the day. Next is Marrakech.

5. 5. Marrakech

   Marrakech announces itself with a smell before it shows its face: woodsmoke, orange blossom, leather, grilled meat, with mint and diesel in the mix. The city, founded in the later eleventh century by the Almoravids, grew from a camp of tents at the edge of the Haouz plain into the capital of a series of Berber dynasties. Its walls and many of its buildings are built of local red clay, giving it the nickname of the red city, and behind them sits the old medina, a maze of lanes where mopeds, donkey carts and tourists push through together. The Koutoubia mosque, whose minaret rises about seventy metres above the roofs and dates from the twelfth century, is the landmark you steer by.

   Read the complete Marrakech write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Marrakech. That is the ride.