From the Imperial Cities to the Desert

day 1
City of origin– Casablanca

Reception at Casablanca airport and transfer to the hotel.

day 2
Casablanca – Rabat – Meknes – Fes (316 km)

Breakfast at the hotel and then visit the Mosque of Hassan II, built in 1993, is the largest mosque in Morocco and the third largest mosque in the world, then we put on route to Rabat, capital of the Kingdom of Morocco, visit the historic center of the city in 2012 was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The most important tourist attraction of Rabat is the Kasbah of the Udayas, a fortified city unique in its kind with its blue and white walls, the entrance to the Kasbah is through the monumental door of Bad Udaya Almohad architecture. The Kasbah of the Udayas was built by the Almohad sultans Abd-el-Moumen and Yaqub al-Mansur in the 12th century and its name comes from the Udayas tribe whose mission was to protect the city.

We will continue our visit through Rabat to the Tower of Hassan and the mausoleum of Sultan Mohamed Ben Yusef, also known by the name of King Mohamed V, a monarch much appreciated by the Moroccan people. The mausoleum contains the tomb of Mohammed V and his sons Hassan and Moulay Abdellah II, and was built between 1961 and 1971; 10 years of work in which more than 400 Moroccan artists collaborated. The design of the mausoleum was made by the Vietnamese architect Eric Vo Toan, and is in the classical Arab-Andalusian style within traditional Moroccan art.

After the cultural visit of Rabat we will leave in direction to Fes, by the way we will make a pause in the forest of the Mamora, a place of peace and beauty where we will be able to relax in this magnificent forest considered as the biggest cork oak forest of the world, declared Reserve of the Biosphere.

After the break we will continue our way to Meknes, 150 km from Rabat, is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco, along with Fes, Marrakech and Rabat. This city was founded by the Almoravids in the 11th century (a Berber tribe called Meknassi) and became the capital of the Maghreb in the 17th century. In Meknes we can see the gate of Bad el Mansour, it is one of the largest and most beautiful entrance doors in Morocco, built in 1732.

27 km north of Meknes is the Roman city of Volubilis, the most important archaeological site in Morocco, and inscribed on the list of World Heritage by UNESCO. After the visit of Volubilis we will continue until arriving at Fes. Overnight in the hotel.

day 3
Fes

Full day dedicated to the discovery of the city of Fes, in the evening we will return to the hotel, to enjoy a deserved rest.

Fes is considered in Morocco as the religious and cultural center of the country. The city is divided into three zones, Fez el Bali, (the old zone within the walls), Fez-Jdid, (the new zone where is the Mellah, the Jewish quarter), and the Ville Nouvelle (the French zone in the northwest of the city). The medina of Fez el Bali is one of the largest medieval sites in the world today. The whole medina is declared World Heritage by UNESCO, its souks and alleys have not changed since the Middle Ages. To get to know the medina of Fez el Bali, start at the Bab Boujloud gate, enter the souk and walk its narrow, labyrinthine streets, often dodging mules laden with large bundles.

• Visit the Bou Inania Madrasa, with its valuable works in cedar wood, stuccoes and marble and onyx decorations.
• The zaouïa of Moulay Idriss, founder of the city.
• The Andalusian quarter with its mosque and the Es-Sahrij Madrasa.
• The ancient Dar Batha palace, in the Arabic-Andalusian style, dedicated to the arts and traditions of Fez.
• The University Mosque of Al-Karaouine is one of the oldest in the world, founded in 859 by Fatima Al-Fihri, daughter of Mohammed Al-Fhri, a very rich merchant of those times. After the death of her father, Fatima and her sister received a large amount of money, and then Fatima decided to create the University Mosque. Inside you can see many arches, mosaics, wood carvings and paintings of great beauty.

The district of the tanners, in the Middle Ages, the city became one of the main commercial centers of the Maghreb, being the main producer of adargas. (shield made of leather and oval shape), originally used by the Muslim cavalry of Al-Andalus, with the name of addárqa.

The Fez World Festival of Sacred Music, created in 1994, is part of the spiritual and artistic life of the city; since its creation, this event has been a true international success. The 2001 Fez Festival was declared by the United Nations as one of the most exceptional events contributing to the dialogue among civilizations. It is held every year in June.

“Fez Hats” The fez or tarbush was conceived by the Andalusian Muslims of the city of Fez in the seventeenth century, as a fashion for high society. The artisans who participated in its design were the most select members of the city’s souks.

Until the nineteenth century, the city of Fez was the only producer, until France and Turkey began to develop this product.

day 4
Fes – Merzouga

After breakfast we will leave Fes in the direction of Ifrane, a town located in the Middle Atlas in a mountainous area at 1713 meters of altitude and with a cold climate, which has influenced the nickname of the small African Switzerland, leaving Ifrane, we will take the route to Midelt, where we will make a brief stop in the famous cedar forests of the Middle Atlas, where lives one of the last communities of Barbary monkeys, a species of macaque that can only be seen here and in Gibraltar.

The route of the Ziz valley is through limestone gorges bordered by high date palms and mixed with the constructions of adobe houses, which makes the place a fascinating spectacle for our eyes. The river Ziz rises in the High Atlas and digs its way through impressive cliffs, heading south, where it waters the immense palm grove of Tafilalet. The water marks the route towards the desert, there it is lost after crossing more than 270 km.

In the afternoon we will arrive to Merzouga at the foot of the dunes, we will leave the 4×4 and ride the camels that will take us to the high dunes of the desert to enjoy an unforgettable sunset. We will spend the night in a Berber tent and enjoy a traditional dinner accompanied by the sound of the tam-tam (drum), in the most authentic heart of the desert.

Climbing the dunes and watching the sunset and sunrise are some of the experiences that undoubtedly do not leave us indifferent.

day 5
Desert – Desert

We will get up early to see the sunrise in the dunes, and after a good breakfast we head to the Ramlia oasis, a beautiful oasis of palm trees in the Tafilalt region, located in the southeast of the Sahara desert, next to the Algerian and Moroccan border.

To get to Ramlia we are forced to follow the route of the Paris-Dakar rally, through beautiful desolate landscapes, Ramlia is in the middle of nowhere, its inhabitants are ancient nomads, they all belong to the tribe of Aït Khebbach, which is part of the great Amazigh group of Ait Atta of the south-east Sahara Desert of Morocco and are characterized by their great hospitality.

Dinner and overnight in a hotel located in the middle of the purest desert.

day 6
Desert – Todra Gorges – Dades Gorges

After breakfast, we will take the direction of Alnif to reach the town of Tinerhir, located in a wide valley bathed by the river Todra that brings irrigation water to the many plots cultivated in the shade of the palm grove. The palm grove of Tinerhir of more than thirty kilometers long extends to the south of the gorges of the river Todra, one of the natural gates that communicate the Atlas with the Sahara, being one of the most beautiful oasis of the region.

The Todra River Gorges are located at the northern end of the Tinerhir palm grove, at the foot of the Eastern High Atlas mountain range. Little by little this palm grove narrows, and the limestone rock walls that delimit it rise up to three hundred meters high and separated in some stretch by just a score of meters, being its narrowest point about ten meters wide. From here we will go to the Gorges of the Dades river.

Dinner and overnight in a hotel located in the gorges.

day 7
Dades Gorges – Ait Ben Haddou – Marrakech

After breakfast, we will continue our journey through the Dades River Gorges. Before reaching Boumalne, in the gorge of Tamlat, the rocks acquire curious geometric shapes by wind erosion, popularly known as “monkey fingers”, from here we follow a mountain road to the villages of Skoura and Boutaghar, finding at our pace nomads with their herds.

In the afternoon we will continue our route through the High Atlas Mountains until we reach the fortified city, or kasbah of Ait-Ben-Haddou, which was founded at the time of the caravan route between the Sahara desert and the current city of Marrakech. The kasbahs were formerly large walled Berber villages designed to defend the harvest and the palm groves that grow along their beds. Ait-Ben-Haddou has been protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 1987. Due to the beauty of its surroundings, numerous films are shot here. After the visit to the kasbah, we will follow the route through the port of Tichka Tizin, the highest point of the High Atlas Mountains, the road runs through Amazigh territory (Berber) with breathtaking views, until you reach Marrakech, the city of a Thousand and One Nights. Stay at the hotel

day 8
Marrakech

After breakfast, we will visit the Medina and the famous Jamaa el Fna square.
Marrakech was founded in 1062 by Youssef Ibn Tachfin, the first emir of the Berber Almoravid dynasty and was the capital of the Islamic Empire.

Marrakech is one of the most important cities of Morocco, and is in the south of the country, at the foot of the Atlas. It has numerous World Heritage monuments, making it the country’s main tourist attraction.

In 2001 UNESCO declared Jamaa Square the Oral Heritage of Humanity, being one of the busiest squares in Africa and the world. Everything in Marrakech revolves around Jamaa el Fna, multitude of people gather in this public space filling it with color and culture; musicians, storytellers, snake charmers, dancers, dentists, fruit juice sellers, acrobats, letter writers, water carriers, sellers of medicinal herbs. . . At dusk the plaza fills with food stalls lit by hundreds of lights, and as night falls, an infinite number of people gather to eat. In the distance, observing the scene of the square, is the oldest Almohad monument in the city, the Katubia mosque, famous above all for its square base minaret, which Yacoub built the Mansour at the end of the twelfth century, and which represented the reference model for the Giralda of Seville, and for the Hasan Tower in Rabat. The Katubia Tower is the tallest building in Marrakech and, with its 77 metres in height, dominates the Medina and can be seen from a distance when you reach the city.

To the north of Jemaa el Fna square is the souk, where each sector bears the name of the main type of goods it offers (clothing, spices, furs, babouches, carpets, wool, wood, ceramics, etc.), or of the artisans’ workshops (dyers, carpenters, blacksmiths, etc.). The souk of carpets occupies the area of the old slave market. To the northeast of the souk is the tanners’ quarter, which stretches along Bab Debbagh Street, so called because of the door bearing the same name.

The Medina, the old city, is protected by a cordon of bastions made of red earth enclosing a labyrinth of alleys full of palaces, markets, mosques, domes and minarets. The Medina of Marrakech was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985, and is now a must-see. Its heart and starting point is the large square Jemaa el Fna.

Accommodation in the hotel.

day 9
Marrakech – City of Destination

At the established time, transfer to the airport and end of our services.

EXTENSION TO ESSAOUIRA

day 9
Marrakech – Essaouira – Marrakech

After breakfast we will head to Essaouira, the city of light and wind.
“A walk through the medina and eat good fish, one of the pleasures of Essaouira.
Essaouira, in Berber Amogdul “the well kept”. Located 170 kilometers west of Marrakech, is the ancient city of Mogador, so called because it is a place historically linked to Portugal, which here established a commercial establishment. Essaouira, is a small fortified city bathed by the Atlantic. founded in 1764 by the Alaouite sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben abdallah, taking advantage of the ancient Portuguese fortifications of Mogador with the desire to make the city a commercial port open to the world.

Its medina or old city has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 2001. Essaouira is one of the most charming cities on the entire Moroccan Atlantic coast thanks to its moderate climate all year round, the kindness of its inhabitants, its cultural and architectural heritage, but above all for the atmosphere that reigns in the streets full of life, where craftsmen, merchants and fishermen mix, which is a huge attraction for visitors.

On the way we will visit the Assafar cooperative, where argan oil is made and where only women work. The argan “The real gold of Morocco” has valuable nutritional and dermatological properties. Its production is handcrafted and the goats are in charge of initiating the process. These animals climb the branches of the Argan trees, chew their fruits and then spit out their stones. Later, the women pick them up and beat them with a stone to crush them with a grinder. During the visit to the Assafar cooperative, we will get to know the daily life of its workers, who will explain in detail the complex process of manufacturing this oil.

In the afternoon/evening we will return to Marrakech, where we will stay at the hotel.

day 10
Marrakech – City of Origin

At the established time, transfer to the airport and end of our services.