Between the High Atlas and the Sahara lie two of Morocco’s most striking canyons — the Todgha and Dades gorges — linked by the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs. Almost every desert tour between Marrakech and Merzouga passes through this canyon country, and it is often the stretch travellers remember as vividly as the dunes themselves.
Todgha Gorge
The Todgha Gorge — Wikipedia near Tinghir is the more dramatic of the two: sheer rock walls rising close to 300 metres above a narrow river canyon, where the road and a shallow stream share the canyon floor. A walk beneath the cliffs, with climbers sometimes visible on the walls above, is a standard morning stop. Our Best 3-Day Tour from Marrakech to Merzouga includes this walk on its route.
Dades Valley and Gorge
The Fes — Wikipedia is gentler and more pastoral, its floor green with almond and fig trees and dotted with kasbahs. The rock formations known locally as the ‘monkey fingers’ — weathered into rounded, finger-like columns — are the signature sight, best in afternoon light. Many desert tours overnight in the valley. Our 5-Day Tangier to Marrakech Desert Tour builds in a night here.
The Road of a Thousand Kasbahs
The route linking the gorges passes a near-continuous succession of earthen kasbahs — some inhabited, some half-ruined, some converted into guesthouses — that give the road its name. The Skoura palm grove and the Rose Valley at Kelaat M’Gouna, famous for its rosewater harvest each spring, lie along the same stretch. Our 4-Day Tour from Marrakech to Merzouga follows this kasbah road.
Fitting It Into Your Trip
The gorges sit squarely on the main Marrakech-to-Merzouga and Fes-to-Marrakech routes, so any three-day-or-longer desert tour includes them. Two days is enough to see both properly with an overnight in the Dades Valley between. Browse our Luxury 5-Day Tour from Marrakech to Merzouga for itineraries that take in the canyon country at an unhurried pace.
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