{"id":1782,"date":"2016-03-27T11:53:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T17:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1782"},"modified":"2016-03-27T11:53:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-27T17:53:20","slug":"atlas-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1782","title":{"rendered":"Atlas & Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Friday we went on a 14 hour tour of the Atlas Mountains. \u00a0The mountains are strikingly beautiful with Mount Toubkao being the highest peak in the Atlas mountain and North Africa (2nd highest in all of Africa). \u00a0There was a “melting pot” of nationalities on this tour: \u00a0a young couple from Pakistan living in London, another young couple from Denmark and two old retirees from Park City! \u00a0We started out at 7:30 a.m. and headed toward the Atlas Mountains and the Tizi n’Tichka Pass. \u00a0You can see this snow capped mountain range from Marrakesh. \u00a0The range separates the weather off the\u00a0Mediterranean\u00a0that impacts northern Morocco from the dry, hot desert south of the Atlas Mountains. \u00a0The summit of the Atlas Mountains is 13,100 feet. The “Tichka Pass” is a dramatic route through the Atlas Mountains that reaches an altitude of around 8,000 feet.<\/div>\n
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As you drive south towards the mountains, the area historically has been inhabited by the Berbers, a long-standing tribe that not only farmed but raised sheep. \u00a0After the pass, the drier countryside has been historically inhabited by nomads who brought their goats to feed on the mountain dry grasses from May to October and moved back into the desert for the winter. \u00a0There are numerous mud & stone houses on this side of the mountains that are available for use by these nomadic tribes.<\/div>\n
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Initially, it appeared that our driver was taking the usual precautions with a van full of 6 tourists; however, once we started the very lengthy series of hairpin turns climbing up the Tizi, our driver started passing on these winding curves which made for a hair-raising drive since we were sitting in the front seats. \u00a0A couple of times, David let out a “gasp”. The drive is also the shortest way over the mountains, so 18-wheelers are numerous. \u00a0Passing them when there isn’t a particularly long straight road can be particularly exciting.<\/div>\n
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At one point as we started our descent, we went off a narrow (really one-lane) badly damaged asphalt road that promised us some “great views”. \u00a0The hairpin turns didn’t go away as we followed a river down the mountains. \u00a0Villages consisted of mud huts, stuccoed mud huts, and cinder block homes. \u00a0Some seemed to be quite nice with smooth stucco, bright paint and designs around the windows. \u00a0Every village (enclave) had a mosque even if a neighboring enclave was a 1\/4 mile away.<\/div>\n
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We had lunch in a village where the well preserved Alt Benhaddoue “Kasbah” prerched high on a hill was the home of about a dozen movies\/TV series ranging from The Gladiator to some of the Game of Thrones episodes. \u00a0After lunch, we walked across sandbags & rocks in a small river and entered the Kasbah from the back entrance. \u00a0A very entrepreneurial woman had printed a sign and printed receipts for your $1 entry fee. Of course, when we came out the front, we realized that the entry was free!<\/div>\n
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We then traveled to Ourzazate, Morocco’s “Hollywood”. \u00a0There are two movie studios & related back lots there along with a Cinema Museum. \u00a0Needless to say, they did not compete with the LA studios. \u00a0This new town of several hundred thousand people is really focused on the studios. \u00a0Not far from the studios is a large castle that is regularly used for some Game of Thrones episodes as well as other\u00a0similar\u00a0period movies. \u00a0It was unlocked so we wandered through the fiberglass & plaster buildings. \u00a0We had a tedious 4-hour drive across the Tizzy pass with what seemed like hundreds of nerve-racking curves in the pitch dark, returning to Marrakesh at 9:00 p.m. \u00a0There were a couple of times, we weren’t sure we would make it back in one piece.\u00a0\u00a0It was a long day.<\/div>\n
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\"Atlas<\/a>
Atlas Mtns & the lush areas on their northern side<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\"Berber<\/a>
Berber villages on the north side<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The winding road down on the south side of the Atlas’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We made the pass!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Typical<\/a>
Typical village on the South (arid) side of the Atlas’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lesley<\/a>
Lesley crossing to the\u00a0rear Kasbah entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Atlas<\/a>
Atlas Mountains cover the horizon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kasbah<\/a>
Kasbah where many films were staged<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Every<\/a>
Every country needs its own “Hollywood”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fiberglass<\/a>
Fiberglass & plaster never looked so good<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sheep<\/a>
Sheep & goats are the staple of these nomadic tribes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday we went on a 14 hour tour of the Atlas Mountains. \u00a0The mountains are strikingly beautiful with Mount Toubkao being the highest peak in the Atlas mountain and North Africa (2nd highest in all of Africa). \u00a0There was a “melting pot” of nationalities on this tour: \u00a0a young couple from Pakistan living in … Continue reading Atlas & Hollywood<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-sK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1811,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions\/1811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}