The Great Oasis Valleys
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Great Oasis Valleys - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Erg Chebbi
In most cases your hotel is your best bet for an organized tour of Erg Chebbi. Every auberge near the dunes is there because it's a prime jumping-off point for a sunrise or sunset journey, either on foot or by camel. Most auberges have their own permanent bivouac in the dunes, often not far from others but generally fairly well concealed—which lets you pretend no one else is around even if they are. Most bivouac areas are organized into series of small tents for couples and larger groups, so you don't have to share with everyone. If you want to be utterly private, make sure your auberge doesn't share a tented site with any other, or ask to camp in the dunes on your own.
Erg Chebbi, Merzouga, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco -
2. Erg Chigaga
The splendid Erg Chigaga dunes are the principal reason why visitors make the trek south to M'hamid. Wild, remote, and largely unspoiled, they’re only accessible by heading west out of the village on 50 km (31 miles) of dusty and stony pistes. The journey takes three hours in a 4x4 vehicle or three days on a camel, though hurried jet-setters bound for Erg Chigaga’s luxury bivouac camps sometimes come by helicopter direct from Marrakesh. Morocco’s highest dunes, rising almost 1,000 feet, are approached by crossing smaller dunes, hammada (rocky Martian-like terrain), and flat expanses, which are sometimes flooded in winter. A few nomadic families still live in the region, herding their camels and goats through the pasture, which can be surprisingly lush.
M'hamid, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco -
3. Medersa
Just north of the Zaouia of Sidi Mohammed Ben Naceur is a 17th-century medersa that still lodges 400 students preparing for university studies. The accompanying Koranic library once held the largest such collection in Morocco, with 40,000 volumes on everything from mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and astronomy to linguistics and Berber poetry. The remaining tomes are plenty impressive: a genealogy of the prophet Mohammed, manuscripts adorned with gold leaf, a medical book with afflictions written in red and remedies in black, and hand-illuminated manuscripts penned in mint (green), saffron (yellow), and henna (red) on gazelle hide. Ask for a look at the 13th-century algebra primer with Western Arabic numerals, which, though subsequently abandoned in the Arab world, provided the basis for Western numbers. There is no official admission charge, but a small donation is expected (20 DH).
Tamegroute, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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