Ait Benhaddou, located along the former caravan route between the Sahara Desert and Marrakech, was inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in 1987 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/444 and is one of Morocco’s most popular tourist attractions. It is a ksar, or fortified city, including a series of kasbahs, but is now inhabited by less than 10 families. The ksar is a fine example of southern Moroccan architecture and has been the setting for numerous movies.

We had been looking forward to visiting this site, and it should have been a great experience, but as most of my Pbase friends know, Tim managed to fall off some stones while crossing a river (well, a wadi full of water) and break his foot on our way over to the ksar. We didn’t know at the time it was fractured, and there was no way to get back to the car but to climb up through the town to the pedestrian bridge on the other side of it (or cross the water again, which was out of the question), but it wasn’t the greatest visit given Tim’s painful condition, and my pictures – although I did take some -- probably reflect that.

He is still recovering from the break, more than two months after the accident. The cast is finally off, but he is still on crutches and can’t drive or get around too easily. We’re hoping that in a few more weeks things will be back to more or less normal.

This was our first view of Ait Benhaddou, taken from the lookout in the last few pictures posted below, of a snake charmer and some diverse modes of transportation: