Ouarzazate city in Morocco
In past centuries, the present city of Ouarzazate was only an oasis south of the High Atlas Mountains serving as a stopover for caravans carrying out their trade and exchanges between different regions from the desert’s limits to inland cities such as Fes and Marrakech, or to coastal cities such as the cities of Essaouira or others. This track, which passed through the oasis of Ouarzazate, was the only route for caravans that, in one direction or another, crossed the Dades valley or the Drâa valley to their final destinations.
It was only around the 1960s that Ouarzazate became known, thanks to the seventh art when the lights and beautiful natural scenery began to attract the greatest directors to make great films made in Ouarzazate, the Moroccan Hollywood, and distributed internationally. Since then, studios have been built, sets have been erected and a large industry has developed around cinema, which, along with tourism, contributes largely to the growth of the city and the region by providing infrastructure and accommodation structures that can accommodate people from the seventh art, including stage directors, actors, engineers ,... and even extras. These landscapes and settings shown on the screens will increasingly attract tourists who love the wide open spaces of the desert, the palm groves, the verdant oases, the rivers that have dug their nest at the bottom of the gorges and at the foot of the steep cliffs, the architecture of fortified kasbahs, picturesque ksours with houses built of red earth and adobe bricks, lush surrounding valleys, discoveries of the us and secular customs of the peoples of the south.
Many people think that the desert means emptiness or absence, but nature hates emptiness and in these infinite spaces she has composed her most beautiful works and masterpieces.
Ouarzazate and its surroundings are the ideal destination, the gateway to the desert to discover these masterpieces made of sublime landscapes. Welcome to all lovers of the great picturesque spaces of the desert; as for lovers of the seventh art, they will be doubly delighted by discovering the cinema museum, the studios, and the sets, which were used for the filming of great films.
Etymology: Berber War Zazat: Silent (Without Noise) This name is perfect for a city where peace and quiet are religion.
The discovery of tools in stone dating from the Paleolithic testify to the human presence on this site since prehistoric times.
Islamization of the region by Oqba Ibn Nafaa towards the end of the 7th century. Berbers, mostly Jews, Haratins (freed sub-Saharan slaves and their descendants) were the inhabitants. More Arabs came to settle there from the second half of the thirteenth century, and the region being under the Saadian rule experienced an economic and cultural boom by developing trans-Saharan trade between Marrakech and Timbuktu via the valleys and the Oasis of Ouarzazate.
At the death of Sultan El Mansour - Eddahbi began the decline of the region in favor of coastal cities.
In the 19th century, the region was under the authority of the Glaoui caids of Telouat appointed by the sultans of the Alaouite dynasty. Ouarzazate as a city did not yet exist, and only the oasis of Ouarzazate existed, which included the Kasbahs of Tifoultout, Taourirt, Tamasla, and the ksour of Tamassint, Fedragoum, zaouiat sidi Othmane, Tazrout, etc. At that time, the inhabitants of Jewish faith were numerous and had eight mellahs in the different ksour. In 1893, Sultan Moulay Hassan undertook an expedition between Fes and Tafilalet (cradle of the Alaouite dynasty), and southern Morocco. On the way back, he crossed the oasis of Ouarzazate along the ksar of Taourirt and the ruins of a kasbah on which the city of Ouarzazate would finally be built, three decades later.
Beginning of the French protectorate in 1912.
Arrival of colonial troops, beginning of the airport works, and a garrison is founded in 1928. The same year a road connects Ouarzazate to Marrakech by the pass of Tizi N'Tichka.
The inauguration of the El Mansour - Eddahbi dam in 1972, somewhat launches the economy based on agriculture, but in recent decades tourism and cinema have become the main sources of income in the region.
