Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate is a city in the Drâa Tafilalet region. It is known as "The Gateway to the Desert."

Ouarzazate is located on the southern foothills of the central High Atlas, dominated to the west by the Toubkal massif and to the northeast by the M'Goun massif, both of which rise to over 4000 meters.

It lies at the crossroads connecting it to the northwest with Marrakech via the High Atlas passes, including Tizi n'Tichka, to the east with Tafilalet, to the south with the middle valley of the Drâa, and beyond to the Saharan desert, and finally, to the west towards the Souss Valley.

The Taourirt Kasbah, a symbol of the city, is a national heritage site. Adjacent to the medina, it is believed to have been built around the mid-18th century and once belonged to the Glaoui family. It is depicted on the new 50 dirham banknotes.

In the 1960s, Ouarzazate began to become a popular filming location for movie directors and solidified its fame with the filming of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, which was notably shot at the Ait Ben Haddou site, a small village near Ouarzazate.