Ait Ben Haddou

A place with its own rhythm.

Ait Ben Haddou is a ksar — a fortified village of packed earth — stacked against a hillside above the Ounila river, and it is the most photographed place in southern Morocco for a reason. Towers rise in tiers, each house defending the one below, the whole mass the same red-brown as the ground it stands on. It grew on the caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech, and the earliest surviving buildings date from the seventeenth century, though the site is far older. UNESCO listed it in 1987 as an outstanding example of southern Moroccan earthen architecture. That architecture is also its fragility. Rammed earth and adobe need constant maintenance; a heavy rain can take a wall. A handful of families still live inside, and restoration is continuous. Film crews have used it since the 1960s — Lawrence of Arabia, The Last Temptation of Christ, Gladiator, Game of Thrones — and some of what you see was built for a camera. Guides will tell you which is which. Cross the river, climb to the granary at the summit, and look back down the valley. Late afternoon is the hour: the earth goes copper and the shadows cut between the towers.