Ouarzazate and Gladiator

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Today was a relatively light-intensity day with time for relaxation and shopping.  We’re in Ouarzazate, once one of the crossroads of Morocco on the camel caravan route between Timbuktu and Marrakesh.  Today Ouarzazate is famous as the location of a spectacular Kasbah which has been the site of filming of a number of very big movies, from Lawrence of Arabia to the recent Gladiator.

We began our day with a two-hour walk through the fields along the oasis where farming is as it was hundreds and hundreds of years ago:

At the end of the walk we climbed to the roof of a restored Kasbah which is now a restaurant to get a view of the city.  Next door is a mosque with a stork and nest on its minaret:

The city is on a large river which is totally dry now, although it is usually very full at this time of year.  There’s been a major drought, and the farmers are suffering:

We then traveled to the Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah and walked through it.  There’s a movie being made there now by an Australian company called Queen of the Desert (but not Priscilla!).  Here’s the site where much of Gladiator was made:

We had lunch and returned to the hotel where we spent some time looking at the large number of sets and props from some of the movies which are now decoration at the hotel.  Here’s Leah in the Pharaoh’s throne from The Ten Commandments:

The weather is spectacular, with brilliant sunshine and temperatures in the high 60’s, which made Leah want a swim in the unheated pool.  She froze and didn't stay in long:

Tomorrow we follow the caravan route over a pass in the High Atlas Mountains and will arrive in Marrakesh tomorrow late afternoon.  More then.