Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
M'Hamid
POP 3000
Once it was a lonesome oasis, but these days M'Hamid is a wallflower no more. Border
tensions between Algeria (which lies just 40km south), Morocco and the Polisario had
isolated this caravan stop until the 1990s, when accords allowed M'Hamid to start hosting
visitors again. From here, it doesn't take long to reach the dunes - some nuzzle right up
against guesthouses on the west side of town - but to be enveloped by large dunes, you'll
have to head out across the
reg
(hard-packed rocky desert) by dromedary or 4WD.
Sights
M'Hamid itself encompasses two towns and five different ethnic groups: the Harratine,
Berber, Chorfa, Beni M'Hamid and the fabled nomadic 'Blue Men'. M'Hamid Jdid, the
prematurely aged 'new' town, has a mosque, roadside cafe-restaurants, small budget ho-
town). There's a frontier-town feel here, with tough guys in
shesh
(turban) and sunglasses
hanging around dusty cafes, swapping stories.
The old
kasbah
sits in the
palmeraie,
3km away across the Oued Drâa. Another worth-
while stop is the
Ksar Ouled Driss
, 5km before M'Hamid, which includes a small
ethno-
graphic museum
(admission Dh20;
hours vary)
displaying traditional household objects in a
lovely mudbrick courtyard.
Erg Chigaga
The soft sculpted peaks of Erg Chigaga are located several days' trek or two hours' drive
from M'Hamid. It is the largest sand sea in Morocco, snaking along the horizon for 40km
and bordered to the north and south by mountain ridges. This sea of golden crescents,
which peak at 300m, hides small, semi-permanent camps in its troughs. As a result the
desert experience here is quiet and enveloping, offering spectacular night skies illumin-
ated by the enormous arc of the Milky Way.
SAND DUNE
Erg Ezahar
This tall 'screaming' dune set amid a sea of smaller dunes wails eerily when the wind
kicks up. Located 65km southwest of M'Hamid it takes three days to reach it by camel,
passing an old
marabout shrine
and the flat plain of
Bousnaïna
where artefacts from a long
disappeared village are sometimes turned up. There are no fixed camps here.
SAND DUNE
