Experience the Extraordinary: 3-Day Marrakech to Erg Chegaga Desert Adventure

After breakfast, there is time to visit Kasbah Tamnougalte, the oldest kasbah in the Dra’a Valley. Some of it is still inhabited, but the Jewish area has been crumbling since the departure of its inhabitants to Israel—the last woman left in 1963. From here, we take the ancient caravan road between the river and the mountains for a short while. which was used to ply goods from sub-Saharan Africa and Morocco. The road passes between the mountains and the river, through many villages and gardens. This road allows you to gain a better idea of the Berber way of life in the life-giving oases. Just before the police checkpoint in Tansikht, the driver can stop and show you the dinosaur footprints right on the side of the road. We then arrive in the village of Tinsouline, from where you can drive just a kilometer or so off-road to the fascinating rock carvings of animals long extinct in Morocco at Foum Chenna, some 4000 years old. Zagora is the largest town in the whole area, and here we shall stop for lunch. Later, we reach Tamgroute, with a stop at the potteries famous for the green glaze. You can also visit the ancient Quranic library with exquisite handwritten Arabic texts. In the afternoon, we drive further south still, to M’hamid, the very gate to the desert and the end of the paved road. In the Erg Lihoudi dunes, we stop for lunch, or alternatively, in Kasbah Touareq in Ksar Bounou. You continue to the Erg Chegaga dunes (300m) with 60km of off-road driving. This route passes different features of the desert: ‘erg’ (dunes), ‘hammada’ (stony desert), and oases. These dunes are far away from civilization, in the desert proper, and the silence and expanse of the sand are overwhelming. Once there, you can take a camel ride for about an hour and a half. You have dinner and spend the night at a luxury camp with a private bathroom, king-sized beds, beautiful Moroccan furnishings, and lamps tastefully arranged to enhance your enjoyment of the silence and beauty of the dunes.

After breakfast, our 3-day desert trip to Erg Chegaga from Marrakech takes us west through another 90km of the desert with varying scenery: Lake Iriqui, where you are likely to experience a wide mirage in the heat, the mountains, and have the opportunity to search for small fossils. Lunch will be in Foum Zguid, the first village after the desert. “Foum” means "mouth,” so the name is the “mouth/source” of the Zguid River. From here, the drive goes north along paved roads and past amazing rock formations to the small town of Taznakht, famous for its Berber carpets and rugs. If you are interested, you can visit a display room with looms and women at work. From there, we cross the High Atlas again on a different road from the journey south. You reach Marrakech at the end of the afternoon, having had the best possible Saharan desert trip in Morocco. Your driver will escort you to your riad, bringing your Marrakech to Erg Chegaga desert tour 3 days to an end.