Tizi nTichka and Ait Benhaddou

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   Marrakech sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Taddert.

2. 2. Taddert

   Taddert is a small village strung along the N9 high in the Atlas, a few hundred metres below the Tizi n'Tichka pass, which at around twenty-two hundred and sixty metres is the highest main road crossing of the range. Every vehicle that makes the journey between Marrakech and Ouarzazate comes through, so the village has a lively roadside life, with cafés, mineral and fossil shops, and men waving at passing riders. Fuel is available, which helps, because the climb on both sides is long.

   Read the complete Taddert write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Taddert comes up 33 km in. Next is Tizi nTichka.

3. 3. Tizi nTichka

   Tizi n'Tichka, at about 2,260 metres, is the highest main road pass in Morocco, and for centuries it has been the route that carries Marrakech across the High Atlas toward the desert. The N9 climbs steadily from the plain through red earth, pine and juniper, with roadside stalls selling geodes, fossils and amethyst crystals, before reaching the crest, where a modest sign and a row of tea shops mark the top. Beyond lies a drier, rockier landscape of mud-brick villages that glow ochre in the evening light.

   Read the complete Tizi nTichka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   At least 72 km in you reach Tizi nTichka. Next is Ait Benhaddou.

4. 4. Ait Benhaddou

   Aït Benhaddou looks like a sandcastle that someone left to harden for four hundred years. The ksar, a fortified village of rammed-earth towers and flat-roofed houses stacked up a hillside above the Ounila river, sits about thirty kilometres from Ouarzazate on the old caravan track between the Sahara and Marrakech, and it was listed by UNESCO in 1987. The walls glow red-ochre in the evening, the towers have geometric patterns pressed into their upper storeys, and the whole cluster is reflected, on the rare days when the river runs full, in the water below.

   Read the complete Ait Benhaddou write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Ait Benhaddou, late in the day. Next is Ouarzazate.

5. 5. 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 sits at 198 km, late in the day.

Recorded source links

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