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Helen Betts | all galleries >> Morocco Adventure >> Ait Benhaddou, Morocco's Magical Ksar > View from the village
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12-APR-2015

View from the village

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.

View of Ait Benhaddou from the village across the wadi. You can see people up at the citadel. Our tour guide hadn't realized how serious Tim's injury was and thought we should climb to the top. That was when Tim put his foot down (figuratively since he couldn't really put it down at all without a lot of pain), and we headed for the pedestrian bridge back to the car.

An attractive doorway in the village, posted earlier:


Nikon D810 ,Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
1/320s f/10.0 at 70.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Julie Oldfield23-Jun-2015 03:33
Very well composed with the building in the foreground. V
Gill Kopy21-Jun-2015 00:50
Looks like nothing has changed here for a LONG time - nicely captured V
hamery20-Jun-2015 20:14
Great composition and dramatic, Helen. Like a movie clips again ! BV
The Ellisons20-Jun-2015 18:41
I'm glad you still managed to get a bit of the feel of the place, and get some nice shots!
bill friedlander20-Jun-2015 18:38
A human ant-hill? The people at the top are very clear and add perspective. V
Richard Townsend20-Jun-2015 18:10
That's a great shot, Helen. The tiny figures at the top really emphasise the scale! V