OUARZAZATE

Ouarzazate, Berber War-Zazat "silently", is a town in southern Morocco which is known as the gateway to the desert, and the capital of the province of the same name. Located at the meeting of the valleys of Wadi wadi Ouarzazate and Dades (from the High Atlas) which form the Oued Draa downstream of their confluence, is the nerve center of a vast region of southern Morocco . Ouarzazate evokes both the southern foothills of the High Atlas and the nearby desert. 

Countless kasbahs mud, mountains and arid plains, valleys and lush oases, palm groves and villages of red earth and ocher are the charm of the area and give it a tourist attraction. 

The symbol of the city is the Taourirt kasbah that belonged to the Pasha Glaoui, it would have been built in the mid eighteenth century. It is represented in the new $ 50 Dirhams. 

Founded in 1928 by the French colonial power, has long been a garrison town. Militarily it was the basis of aviation against the famous Ait Atta tribe who fought fiercely against the troops of Henri de Bournazel, (the man in the red cloak, was killed in Morocco in 1933), until 1934 when the rebel leader Assou Oubasslam surrendered to the French to prevent the massacre of entrenched in the mountains populations. 

Today the city of Ouarzazate is thriving on tourism and film plans. It is particularly one of the most sought after by filmmakers Moroccan sites. Y were well turned, partially or fully: Lawrence of Arabia, Kundun, Gladiator, Alexander the Great, Asterix and Cleopatra, The Mummy, Kingdom of heaven, Babel etc. 

Ouarzazate has an international airport and is accessible by road from Marrakech (4 hours by bus, taxi 3:30.) 

Since February 2004 a training institute for the film industry opened to Ouarzazate. 

Cinema is indeed the major activity of this province, probably because of the beauty of its landscapes. Tourism as well, so (the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou is classified World Heritage by UNESCO), not to mention agriculture, saffron and pink top.