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Helen Betts | profile | all galleries >> Morocco Adventure >> Ait Benhaddou, Morocco's Magical Ksar tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Ait Benhaddou, Morocco's Magical Ksar

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.
First view of Ait Benhaddou
First view of Ait Benhaddou
The village
The village
View from the village
View from the village
A village hotel
A village hotel
Village house
Village house
Fortified
Fortified
The fateful stones
The fateful stones
Crossing the wadi
Crossing the wadi
Entry
Entry
Alien encounter
Alien encounter
Souvenir way
Souvenir way
Ait Benhaddou, the movie village
Ait Benhaddou, the movie village
Synagogue
Synagogue
To the artist's workshop
To the artist's workshop
An artist
An artist
Still standing
Still standing
View from the ksar
View from the ksar
Moviemaking location
Moviemaking location
Citadel
Citadel
Another artist
Another artist
Doorway
Doorway
Stairway
Stairway
Impressive
Impressive
Onward and upward
Onward and upward
In retrospect
In retrospect
Best mode of transport
Best mode of transport
Souvenirs
Souvenirs
Last glance
Last glance