Morocco · Drâa-Tafilalet
Where to Stay in Ouarzazate, Drâa-Tafilalet
Ouarzazate is the door of the desert in southern Morocco, a mud-brick town of kasbahs where the Atlas mountains meet the Sahara.
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Where to stay in Ouarzazate
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Where you stay in Ouarzazate turns on the old kasbah. The streets around Taourirt keep the palace, the studios, and the market within reach, and staying near the kasbah suits anyone here for the old town. The red walls glow at sunset.
Rooms sit in kasbah-style riads nearby. Out toward the palm valleys and the desert road, the guesthouses spread into quieter ground. A room outside the town trades the centre for space, pools, and an easy start toward the Sahara and the ksour.
The bare hills open past the edge. If you want the kasbah and the studios, stay in town; if you want the desert, take a room outside. Either way, the red kasbah is close at hand.
About Ouarzazate
Ouarzazate stands at the edge of the Moroccan desert.
What is Ouarzazate known for?
Where the roads over the High Atlas drop toward the Sahara rises a town of red mud-brick kasbahs, watched over by the great fortress of Taourirt, and its film studios have made it the Hollywood of Morocco. The bare desert opens to the south. Kasbahs and cinema mark the town.
What are the main landmarks in Ouarzazate?
The Taourirt Kasbah guards the heart of Ouarzazate. The great mud-brick palace of the Glaoui rises in red earthen towers over the old town, the emblem of the city, by the desert road. Kasbahs and studios ring the town.
The Kasbah Amridil stands among the palms nearby, while the Atlas film studios and the Cinema Museum of Ouarzazate keep the town's place on the screen.
What is the history of Ouarzazate?
Ouarzazate grew as a caravan post on the desert road. For centuries it stood where the tracks from the Sahara met the passes over the High Atlas, a meeting place of Berber traders, and its people raised fortified kasbahs of packed red earth against raiders and heat. A great lord ruled from Taourirt.
The Glaoui chiefs, who controlled the mountain passes, built the huge Taourirt Kasbah as a seat of their power over the south. The French made it a garrison town. Under the protectorate the army laid out a modern town beside the old kasbah as a base for the desert region, and Ouarzazate grew into the capital of the whole southern country.
Then the film-makers came. Directors found the light, the kasbahs, and the desert perfect for the screen, and great studios rose outside the town, drawing crews from around the world. The old kasbah still guards the road.
Ouarzazate keeps its earthen towers between the mountains and the sands.
Where is Ouarzazate?
Ouarzazate lies on a high plateau south of the Atlas mountains. The town sits in a dry, stony basin where the last green valleys of the mountains give way to the desert of the south, near the palm-lined Drâa on the road to the Sahara. Bare red hills ring the town.
The desert stretches away to the south.
What is the climate of Ouarzazate?
Ouarzazate has a dry high-desert climate. Hot days and cool nights mark the long summer on the plateau, and the winters turn cold with frost in the thin mountain air, with very little rain in any season. Dust hangs over the stony plain.
The desert air runs clear and dry.
How do you get to Ouarzazate?
Ouarzazate lies south of the High Atlas in the Moroccan desert. The main road climbs over the mountains to it from Marrakesh, crossing the high Tizi n'Tichka pass, and the town has a small airport. Buses reach the desert valleys around.
Most arrive by road over the Atlas.
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Updated August 2026