Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate is a city where different cultures and artistic traditions meet, point of departure for the oases. It stands at the crossroads between the Drâa valley which reaches as far as Agadir, the Dadès which cuts through the High Atlas and the Ziz, which feeds Tafilalet's vast stretches of palm grove before vanishing into the sands of Taouz.’

The geographical status of Ouarzazate makes of it one of the most beatiful cities in Morocco. Located in the south of Morocco and 540  kilometers from the Capital, Rabat. Ouarzazate remains the biggest attraction of the south besides Marrakech. It has been a historical melting of different populations coming from the surrounding tribes and Douars. In a military area under the control of Caid namely, Caid Hammadi El Glaoui since 1860. Ouarzazate was selected by the French colonel Spilman, who draw its plan in 1928, as a military camp annexed to Marrakech before being independent in 1934. In 1959, Ouarzazate was one of the biggest provinces after the administrative stratification in Morocco. Ouarzazate, which used to be a military basis for the French army, has inherited a French administration structure. Consequently, this heritage made of it predisposed to be a place of tourism, because of its European structure.  For sure Ouarzazate has not got the historical monuments like The Oudayas or Hassan, Jamaâ El fna or Al Badî Castle or any other monuments that morocco is proud of, but as it has many large landscapes a very hospitable people. Ouarzazate is also known for its architecture, which shows the intelligence of its people art making. In fact, they use hey and mud to build houses which adopt to all types of weather, The hot one in the Summer ( up to 47C°), and in the Winter (-6C°).

   Ouarzazate is a geographically rich city. Lying in the south among cities like Marrakech, Zagora, kelaat Mgouna, Tata.  This city has its own characteristics. Its landscape is largely mountains, oases, deserts… Therefore, this has created problems to its population which leans on agriculture to win its living. This mountainous nature of Ouarzazate has made transportation quite difficult. Ouarzazate is also lucky to have large areas of dunes where tourists find their pleasure. However, its people suffer from the lack of green places where they can plough and exercise their agrarian culture. Being a Southern city, Ouarzazate is nearly all the Year round hot in the day and very cold in the night. People have problems to find fields to graze for their cattle, however, others consider it a blessing to have this city where excursions on the hot sand, and not very far, skiing in the snow are always a wonderful pleasure for the tourists.

 

A pair of magnificent Kasbahs dazzle the visitor with their beauty Taourirt, Tifoultout, Aït Ben Haddou, And many others Kasbahs. The region of Ouarzazate is very known for ‘The valley of thousands of Kasbahs. The most important one is the Kasbah of Ait ben Haddou which is located 30 kilometers from the Ouarzazate city itself. Such is the reputation of these two architectural marvels that they were chosen as locations for films such as “Lawrence of Arabia”, “The Sheltering Sky”, “The rules of Engagements” and the one who took the prize for the Academic Awards in 2000 “ Gladiator”.  This famous Kasbah was selected by the UNESCO and was included in the World Heritage Program.

Another landscape is ‘The road of thousands of Kasbahs’, this region is full of Kasbahs. Many of those Kasbahs have 2 centuries of their age, and still in good conditions. Those Kasbahs are highly appreciated by the tourists, because of their beauty and their structure. Gorges are also present in this region. Gorges of Todgha and gorges of Dades are the most known gorges in morocco. 0     

The valley of dra, the big oases in Morocco, is also a marvelous landscape that many people found very beautiful. This valley was very known in the history as a road of gold or the road for business coming from the sub-Saharan countries. This valley is still rich of palm grove near which was the biggest river in Morocco ‘ Oued Dra’, the destruction of this river was caused by the construction of the dam in Ouarzazate.

As explained before, transportations is quite hard in a mount and a plain of sand in a  city like Ouarzazate. The residences of this city used to ride mules or horses to get to weekly markets namely Souks to buy all their needs. After independence, the country started building roads. This eased the tasks of Ouarzazate people. Now, inside the city all means of transportations are used except for the train and the maritime kind of transportations. The most newest kind of transportations is the Airplane. A daily link with Casablanca is available in the international Airport of Ouarzazate. Another link with the Europe is also available through Ouarzazate – Paris line. Yet as deep as you go in the city, rural areas still depend heavily on donkeys and mules to transport their food or baggage, especially in the old Jewish neighborhood. The main kind of transportations is buses and cups are available all the time and for all the destinations, even for to European destinations.

The history of the economy of Ouarzazate was started with the visit of the king Hassan II in 1961. The construction of Al Mansour Ed-Dahbi dam had an effect on the economy of the whole region. The building of others projects was very helpful for the development of the city. The most important one was the building of the airport which encourages the investors to invest in this city. High rated hotels began to be built in the new part of the city, but the most important investment was the building of The Atlas Corporation Studios at 7 Km from the city. The Atlas Corporation Studios was built in 1983 by a Moroccan investor, who took advantage of Ouarzazate’s landscape, the price of the employees.  The other reason is the number of films that have been shot in the region of Ouarzazate. The number of films which have been shot there is more than 100 movie.  The economic impact of the studios is very important, and can not be negligible. Thanks to the studios, the economy of the region is always up. Films also help the tourism economy by making advertisements to the city all over the world, especially through cinema. Thus, Ouarzazate now is visited by all stars of cinema like Julia Roberts, Samuel L. Jackson, Jean-Claude VanDamne, Jackie Chan, Brad Pitt, Jean Paul Belmondo, and so on … Many of those artist have their own houses in Ouarzazate in the neighborhood of The Royal Golf Of Ouarzazate. In the last years, many investors made the decision to build other studios, and now Ouarzazate have 2 studios, but the first one is more equipped. According to the Atlas Corporation Studios’ web site, The studios have a factory for making all sorts of cinema clothing, and also a factory for building of decorum, and the most important is that inside the studios there is a 4 stars hotel.  The studios, as I said already, have an important impact on the economy of the city and the national economy of Morocco.  Hiring people in films as figurants, as employee in making the decorum, as translator between the employees and the foreigners, as stuntman or acrobat, all those jobs help the popularity by minimizing the number of unemployed.  But the most important is that when a film is in production, all the restaurants are packed, all the hotels are hosting and people are buying their stuff.  All people know that the producers of films make money out of  Ouarzazate for it’s cheap prices, but the most important thing is that the people of Ouarzazate are also gaining an important experience, are wining some money to survive, and also the city itself is not losing anything, on the contrary, it gains celebrity, money, and infrastructure. Those advantages0 are very important for the economy of the whole country.

 All what have been said is luring and marvelous. The citizens of Ouarzazate are known for their seriousness thus throughout Morocco they are trusted a lot. This reputation has been owned through a Berber history of good behavior and willingness to help and assist. The historical involvement of its people in fighting for independence is a clear reminder of that. Nowadays, Ouarzazati people still suffer from years of ignorance as its administrative staff is still in the hands of people who are illiterate and are not up to solving people’s problems. People complain the lack of roads and the sparse distance between administration and people. I am sure if all the talents of this city are well consumed, it would have been better. The lack of roads, water, dependence on the center, indifference, immigration and migration would become old stories. The limitation of the control of this cinematographic heritage lies in the hands of business people who exploit meanly the population of Ouarzazate who are not though aware of the value of the treasure their environment offers them. Sure its geography is ready made to host all kinds of films and this treasure can be progressed to a afford a brighter future for its growing number of unemployed youngsters. They in fact stop lately fleeing this beautiful city to larger cities where opportunities of being employed are numerous. A fact which not be ignored as well is the contribution of the large number of workers abroad which boosted the economy of the city. They also add to the glamour of the city by being good ambassadors abroad thus the city is situated as a leading city in the prosperity of tourism in our country.

In conclusion, Ouarzazate a young city which offer many advantages, can be an economic city with its richness in gold, cupper, cobalt, and so on… Can be a touristy city with their landscape. All these can be real if all the talent people for this region are grouped to achieve one aim, the development of their city.