Ourika Valley

Craggy peaks, fertile valleys, and traditional Berber villages perched on the slopes: the High Atlas Mountains offer excellent opportunities for both walking and relaxing…

The Atlas Mountains Ourika Valley

Craggy peaks, fertile valleys, and traditional Berber villages perched on the slopes: the High Atlas Mountains offer excellent opportunities for both walking and relaxing.

The Atlas Mountains are in fact three distinct ranges that run in bands across Morocco’s interior, dividing it into strips of lower-lying land. Furthest north is the Middle Atlas, while the southerly range is the Anti Atlas that attempts to keep desolate Western Sahara at bay. The central High Atlas range is the most dramatic and by far the most accessible, containing North Africa’s highest peak – the 4,167-metre Mount Toubkal – as well as countless Berber villages terraced onto precipitous ledges. From Marrakesh, it only takes around 45 minutes to drive to the Ourika Valley, a wonderful chance to retreat to the clear mountain air.

Ourika Valley in 1 Day Trip

Located south of Marrakech about 70 km and an hour and a half away from the road is located Ourika Valley that rises gently to the first hills of the High Atlas, is a pure and splendid place where silence is only disturbed by the song of the birds and the soft sound of the streams and the roar of its seven waterfalls, with its gorges, valleys, mountains, etc. It is one of the most beautiful valleys and best-preserved excursions that will bring you closer to know the areas in the surroundings of Marrakech.

During the tour you can see different houses of Berber handicrafts and how people live in the Valley, walking through the valley is very relaxing since you are in the middle of nature away from the hustle and bustle of the city, you can enjoy beautiful landscapes, traditional markets in the small villages that make up this valley and trek routes, in this small valley very well preserved you can visit the small villages on the slopes of the mountains that are a marvel, a truly impressive oasis, depending on the season the green of the valley it contrasts with the snowy peaks of the Atlas and the houses of the almost reddish villages are surrounded by an intense green.

We will pass through the several villages with houses of abobe that make up this valley and where if you like we can stop to go for a walk and visit the typical products of the area, such as clay pottery, crystalline minerals, woodcraft shops, carpets, argan oil, etc.

In Timalizene we will be able to visit the Garden – the medicinal plants – where the saffron of the region is produced, the botanical gardens of the aromatic plants such as henna, and the production of the olives.

We can visit if you like an Argan oil cooperative where Berber women work in a traditional way to make the famous argan oil that is used both for food and cosmetics.

A Marrakesh Day Trips that surely will not leave you indifferent, and where you can get an idea of ​​the Berber culture of the Atlas and the Berber Villages.