Across the Atlas Mountains to Ait Ben Haddou

Recognize this place from Gladiator or Game of Thrones?

There are some places in the world that, when you first catch sight of them, you let out an involuntary “Wow!” You know the image is being seared into your brain. Ait Ben Haddou in southern Morocco is one of those. In fact, Hollywood must agree as it has been used in films over and over, including in both Gladiator movies and Game of Thrones.

Ait Ben Haddou is a walled, hilltop mud brick town from the medieval era

We had taken a “day trip” to it from Marrakech. However, we had talked the company into letting us go down one day and return four days later after the Sahara excursion we had booked. We were in a large van with a dozen other travelers from across the world as we bounced our way south towards the Atlas Mountains which cut across Morocco. I was looking forward to the panoramic mountain views that I had read about. However, the sky clouded up and it started raining almost immediately when we entered the mountains. The climb up and through the pass was invisible to us, as rain or condensation fogged our windows.

This place is truly one of those sights that you will remember forever

The rain stopped several hours later when we arrived at Ait Ben Haddou, fortunately. We piled out of the van and met our guide for the site, Walid. Of all the drivers or guides we had in our 10 days in Morocco, he was by far the best. His father was actually Tuareg from Timbuktu in Mali, which I had visited in 2009. We talked about that and also how his mother was from one of the five families of Berbers still living inside the historical site of Ait Ben Haddou. Walid had been hired as an extra in many of the movies filmed there. For Game of Thrones fans, Walid was one of Kaleesi’s Unsullied warriors, and he had photos on the walls of his home (which we visited) to prove it!

Walid’s weathered photos of himself as an Unsullied during the filming of Game of Thrones

As a teacher, I admired the technique he used to remember everyone’s names. It also appeared he spoke just about everyone’s language. For example, when I told him I was from Ohio, he rattled off the Japanese phrase “Ohayo gozaimasu” which is a casual way of saying good morning. And yes, Walid speaks Japanese, too. He marshaled us through the outskirts of the new town and took us to a couple scenic overlooks for us to take our first photos of the gorgeous mud brick town across the raging, but shallow river.

Close up of the Berber designs on the mud brick towers

He explained the modern footbridge we would cross on was relatively recent. In the old days, if the rain had swollen the river, visitors would have to cross on donkeys. During storms lasting days, Ait Ben Haddou could be completely cut off for days. That was the reason so many families had moved to the new town sprouting on this side of the river. He pointed out solar panels that we had missed on the roofs of a few of the houses. We also discovered later while touring one of the homes that car batteries were also used there for electricity. Still five families held out and lived among the towering reddish-brown structures which were constructed in the 1600s. The town was likely first founded in the 11th century, but mud brick wears down over time due to rainfall or even earthquakes.

Our guide Walid outside his own home that was a stop on our tour!

Once we had taken our photos, we walked across the bridge and began our exploration. We peppered Walid with questions, especially about when the town was used as a movie set. He explained that it was closed to visitors during weeks of filming, but that guides like him were still able to earn income as extras in the movie or assisting the crew. He showed us a list of more than 60 movies that had filmed portions on site. Remember Russell Crowe’s first fights in the North African arena (“Are you not entertained?”)? Those arenas were built by the crew and then taken down so thoroughly even when Walid pointed out where they had been I could see no trace. In fact, Gladiator II had recently concluded filming scenes there, too. So, I was glad we didn’t arrive on a filming week and miss out on actually walking through the town.

The interior of Walid’s Berber house inside the walls of Ait Ben Haddou

It was cool to tour the lived in “Berber House,” which Walid admitted was his own. That certainly explains the photos of him as an Unsullied on the walls! The furnishings were simple and still rather spartan by modern Western standards. This is despite Walid probably earning a higher wage than many of his fellow residents or fellow countrymen. His fee from each of us for the two hours was only $4 (multiplied by 16 of us, plus tips). I imagine he does more than one tour a day, so my guess is he earns a couple hundred dollars a day in a country where the median income is about $55 a day. Still, Walid worked hard on building a relationship with everyone on the tour, and I admired how he handled the group and kept everyone involved and happy. Plus, it always amazes me when people can speak multiple languages fluently. It shows dedication to doing your best to take the time to practice each language and develop it.

Looking across the modern footbridge to the hilltop that Ait Ben Haddou stands upon

Walid gave us time to climb to the top of the hill the town is perched upon, and moments to explore each place we visited. However, the drawback of a guided tour is you truly don’t get the time to linger where you like, or probe deeper into a site. Walid led us into Ait Ben Haddou and then immediately out of it to the restaurant we would have lunch. I’m sure the tour companies in Morocco get kickbacks from the restaurants where they take tour groups. The food at these was usually fairly average, at best. It was only when we picked out our own restaurants that it was a notch above. It says something that the Moroccan food I had eaten at home, prior to my visit, was actually tastier than what I ate while there on my vacation!

Walking through the streets of the UNESCO World Heritage town

After we all posed for selfies with Walid, we piled back into the van and headed to Ouarzazate, where I would be staying that night. Our destination there was Atlas Studios, another Mecca for Hollywood and other filming companies around the world. When we debarked, the driver gathered those of us who’d opted to stay in town rather than return to Marrakech. He would take us there now while the rest of the passengers had 15 minutes to take pictures of the decorated exterior of the studios. Since Atlas Studios does tours that take about an hour, I would have been seriously disappointed if I was one of the passengers going back to Marrakech that day. It was only about 4pm, so we had the opportunity to check into our hotel and return by taxi for a tour.

Some of the props and scenery created for Ancient Egyptian movies at Atlas Studios

Sure enough, after being dropped downtown and taking a taxi to our hotel ($2), we were soon on our way back to the studios. In fact, we were being driven by the amazing owner of Tin Joseph, our hotel. Time and again, he went out of his way to help us out. The studios closed at 6pm, so we were in time to book one of the last few tours. We actually passed on the first one as the group size was so huge. We gambled that the one leaving 15 minutes later would be smaller, and it was. The guide explained honestly that one of Morocco’s advantages as a filming location is it’s cheap labor.

A Jerusalem street created for Mel Gibson’s “Passion of Christ” movie

So, Hollywood would build sets, for example the Jerusalem city street we walked through was built in 2004 for Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ. Atlas would leave the sets standing on their lot and then other companies (or even businesses filming commercials) would use them, lowering their production costs further. The same was true of props built for movies. One of my favorite movies from 2001 was Black Hawk Down. The vehicles that the U.R. Rangers got shot up in are still standing on their lots. There is also a Viking longship, Ancient Egyptian vessel, and even the ark from a movie about Noah that I had never seen.

One of the U.S. Ranger vehicles from the movie Black Hawk Down

The main part of the tour was walking through the larger of the various sets that were built and are still standing. The entire frontage of Jerusalem from the 2005 Crusader epic Kingdom of Heaven still stands about a football field away from the main studio lot. Probably most impressive were the several Ancient Egyptian sets. The detail and painting were striking and certainly harkened back to my own visit to Egypt in 2007. Our guide even had us “film” our own scene using the Cleopatra set and one of the tour member’s phones with us as actors. Our guide was an apprentice at the studios and did a great job using the phone camera to simulate a Hollywood scene.

And the walls of Jerusalem itself for the movie Kingdom of Heaven

Another set we enjoyed was the Tibetan monastery from the 1997 movie Kundun. He had an interesting story that, as a rule, they don’t take Chinese tour groups there. Too many visits by Chinese groups devolved into acrimonious denials that Tibet exists. The Chinese government censors History on a regular basis and a film about the life of the 14th Dalia Lama is definitely taboo in their heavily censored and repressed world. So, now the stop is skipped altogether by the guides if the group is from mainland China. The PRC also pushes back heavily on Western media, and Disney CEO Michael Eisner was actually brow-beaten by their government to “apologize” for the movie. This simply illustrates how important storytelling and art is to freedom of expression. And how craven that for-profit companies can be in kowtowing to authoritarian regimes. As a History teacher and someone with a Journalism degree, it just shows how firm we must be in fighting to ensure the truth is told and known. Today’s 21st century world of disinformation by for profit “sources” is being led down a scary path, I feel.

The interior of a movie set Egyptian temple at Atlas Studios

All in all, it was an enjoyable hourlong visit to Atlas Studios. I am glad my stop there wasn’t limited to 15 minutes of rushing around and photographing the Egyptian architecture and statues lining its exterior. Atlas Studios wasn’t Ait Ben Haddou, but it was a fun stop with lots of interesting, behind the scenes information about a film studio.

Me driving the Pharaoh’s chariot at Atlas Studios