Best of Morocco

The Draa is known as the Country of the Dates, in comparison to the damper Dades - the Country of the Figs.

Rising in the High Atlas, the River Draa cuts a deep channel between Djebel Sarhro and the Anti Atlas ranges through a series of precipitous canyons famous for their cliffs of green and black rock. The inhabitants of the Draa Valley are a mixture of Arab, Berber, Jew and the descendants of Mauretanian slaves. Under constant attack from marauding nomads, they clustered together in fortified villages called "ksours", surrounded by their quilt of minutely divided fields and palm groves. Like tiny city-states, the still thriving communities built everything vital to life within their protective walls.

The road from Ouarzazate to Zagora (about 100 miles) takes you at first through the grandeur of the peaks and ridges of the Djebel Sarhro range to the main pass at Tizi n'Tinififft (1,660m). At Agdz, you emerge from the mountains to catch a first, extraordinary glimpse of the Draa Valley and the oases - a thick streak of palms reaching out into the haze, and the first sign of the Draa kasbahs, rising as if from the land where the green gives way to the desert.

Visitors during March may like to attend the annual Nomads Festival. This weekend event celebrates the traditions of the Tuaregs, Bedouins and Berbers. more details...