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Some days on these tours you just want to get from point A to point B and there’s not a lot to do along the way. This was one of those days. Still, we did see a few interesting things and the crazy curvy road through the High Atlas Mountains offered some nice scenery.
We began the morning with a tour of
Ouarzazate’s Kasbah, which, as I mentioned earlier, is a
fortification inside the city.
And as you’re going in if you turn
around and look behind you you will see an actual movie studio.
If Abdul the local guide told us this place was the Hollywood of Morocco once, he told us 25 times.
The old Kasbah is undergoing restoration.
The walls are made of adobe.
Those windows have bars so narrowly spaced that you can’t see behind them from below. This allowed the pasha’s wives to look out through the windows without being seen from the plaza below.
Our guide seems to be wearing his fancy clothes over street clothes.
It's even bigger than it looks from the street.
The Road Scholars are taking it all in.
I imagined being attacked by a scimitar-wielding robed assassin down one of these narrow alleyways. Did you know the word “assassin” comes from the Arabic word “hashishin”, which means “hashish eaters?” The term was used as a derogatory term for the Nizārīs, a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets. The Hashshashin were a religious group who used hashish to create mystic visions. They later became associated with the assassination of invading Christian leaders during the Crusades. Their organization fell in the mid-1200s. The word “assassin” first appeared in English around the 16th century via French and Italian. It took on the meaning of a relentless killer.
And actually, scimitar-wielding robed assassins have been at work here recently. Remember that movie studio across the street? There was lots of assassin action on these ramparts when they filmed scenes for "Aladdin" over here.
It gets hot here in the summer. Abdul just shook his head and said the temperatures can reach 50°C which is about 122°F. So the adobe walls are very thick to insulate the interior rooms from all the heat.
See the straw in the adobe walls?
Watch your step.
And be careful who you'll meet around that corner.
Abdul showed us where the harem hung out and where the kitchen was and how they stayed cool in summer and warm in the winter. Did you know that “harem“ means “forbidden?“ I didn’t know that.
Abdul said the ceiling was made of oleander.
A quiet courtyard.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
The pipe drains water from the roof.
The Road Scholars examine the oleander ceiling.
Well, well.
The potty is through that door. I didn't use it.
Abdul is wrapping things up.
And we're headed for the bus.
Abdul, you were great, but -- gotta go.
On the way out of town we found more movie studio, as well as the nice hotel where we didn't stay because we couldn't get guaranteed rooms. As I understood it, if movie stars show up they kick out the Road Scholars. Well I wouldn't stay at this place if they paid me, so there.
Looks kinda interesting, though.
Kinda Cecil B. DeMille-ish.
That solar powered generator seems to be visible from anywhere around here. It looks like it dropped in from a science fiction movie.
Right above ancient Persia movie sets.
Time for a potty break, and we're just across the street from the movie sets.
What in the world is that thing in the men's room?
Well I declare...it's a foot washing station. It doesn't look like what I learned about in Sunday School, but I guess the principle is the same.
That truck is full of chickens!
Do they look worried? They should look worried.
The other studio was Atlas. This is CLA. Have I mentioned that Ouarzazate is the Hollywood of Morocco?
And for the rest of the day we drove up one side of the high Atlas Mountains and down the other side to Marrakesh.
Walls of mud and straw deteriorate pretty quickly if you don't maintain them.
I snapped pictures all along the way. I’m sure I took several hundred, but most of them were pictures of rugged rocks.
And some massive snowcapped peaks. There was that.
Road construction served to break up the monotony of the drive.
Because there's not much else to look at around here.
Look! An almost flowing river.
There's a house on a hill AND a snowcapped peak. This photo has it all.
I think there's almost mostly pretty much enough water down there to wash rugs.
What is this I see? Greenery?
I guess if you work really hard to irrigate the rocks, you can grow crops.
But the arid conditions work against you.
Indeed, it is arid in these parts.
We've found trinkets for sale.
Tichka Pass, elevation 7,414 ft.
It's nice and cool up here and Bill is happy to take a break from the ride. Now comb your hair.
Nabil says we shouldn't waste money on geodes and other trinkets up here.
This is a real geode, with real quartz crystals, but the purplish coloration and the gold-colored areas are fake. Many Moroccan quartz geodes are a bit plain - they are lined with small, whitish-clearish quartz crystals. In order to boost their aesthetic appeal in the retail marketplace, ordinary Moroccan quartz geodes are altered by adding purple dye and some gold-colored film. The result is striking - the specimens appear to have chalcopyrite on amethyst. But they are fake.
Nabil says we'll have lunch somewhere down there. Doesn't look promising.
But wait...here's a nice little restaurant just on the other side of the pass, all prepared for us to stop in.
The Road Scholars are hungry.
My, the food looks tasty.
Pizza! They have pizza up here! But I didn't get any. The pizzas were served only to the vegetarians in the group. I wish I'd claimed to be a vegetarian just this once. That looks wonderful!
Oh boy, another tagine reveal. David is ready.
Meatballs?
Yes! And they were genuinely delicious! We thought maybe they were a combination of ground beef and lamb or something. Certainly no time to be a vegetarian.
There was a pretty tree outside. It is spring in Morocco too, you know.
Bill gets excited whenever he sees a snow capped peak.
Not much snow the way we're headed. Just look at that twisty-turny road.
Nabil knew that I loved the dates he had let us sample on the bus the other day and I had told him I wanted to take a box home. He knew that the little restaurant sold especially good dates and he got this for me. It only cost $25. What a souvenir!
That was the box in Morocco on March 30, 2023. This is the box at home on July 5, 2023, about three months later. They were wonderful, so delicious. I gave away dozens to family and friends and I've treasured the rest, sneaking one at a time out of the box only every once in a while. And now I'm down to the final four. I know I can order Moroccan dates from Amazon, but they just won't be the same as the ones Nabil the date expert obtained especially for me. What a fun and delicious reminder of the trip. But good things seldom last forever. Maybe I'll have another one tonight.
A pretty little mosque on the side of a hill.
Bill will be sorry to see the snow capped peaks disappear as we get lower.
We won't see much more of this.
Bye snow.
We are almost to Marrakesh. Just as soon as the land goes flat we will be there.
Here is the view from my hotel room. Nice place, but if I want to swim it will cost me $10. No, I think I will pass.
It's a nice place, though. A marked improvement over last night.
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