Ksar d'Aït Ben Haddou

Perched on a hillside in the Ounila Valley, about 30 km from Ouarzazate, the Ksar of Aït Ben Haddou is one of the best-preserved ksour in pre-Saharan Morocco. Unlike a kasbah — a fortified residence belonging to a single family — a ksar is a collective fortified village: houses, communal granaries (agadirs), a mosque, a public square and ramparts reinforced with corner towers, all arranged behind a zigzagging gate.

Built from the 11th century onward along this caravan route linking Sudan to Marrakech via the Draa Valley, the village reached its height in the 17th century under the powerful Glaoui family, who then controlled the passes between the Sahara and Marrakech. The rammed-earth architecture — a hand-shaped mix of raw earth, straw and water — shifts in colour with the light, from pale beige in the morning to deep red at sunset.

Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, Aït Ben Haddou has also become a sought-after film location for its timeless look, with no visible modern structures: Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, The Mummy, Prince of Persia and Game of Thrones (where it stands in for the city of Yunkai) were all filmed here.