Today started around 6:00 am Marrakech time (about 11:00 pm Central time). Fortunately, we all packed everything back up last night to avoid last minute scrambling before heading out on our 3 day tour through the Atlas Mountains.

The sun rises in Marrakech around 8:30 am, so it was still full dark, and pretty chilly when we met our tour a little before 7:00 am. I got to use my winter hat! We drove for about an hour and a half, then stopped for a stretch break where Ryan and I were allowed to sit in the front of the van as Ryan was feeling unwell due to the motion of the van with all the twisty, bumpy roads. It was miserable at the time, but being able to sit in the front with the driver allowed us some beautiful views nobody else got to see.

After some mint tea and more driving, we stopped and took pictures of High Atlas Mountain. It was a very brief stop and then it was back into the van for more driving before we arrived at Ait Ben Haddou, where we had a delicious tajine lunch and more mint tea before meeting our guide to the site.

Ait Ben Haddou is about 1100 years old, and was an important trading location where caravans would come up from the south, traveling up to 53 days by camel to trade for salt and minerals. It was a fortified village with its own king and had several kasbahs inside the walls in addition to the royal quarters which included the local justice offices.

It was eventually made an UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has helped protect it as well as provide some needed infrastructure like a bridge between the old city and the road. Without the bridge, when the river flooded, people had to wait three to four days for the water to go down before they could cross.

Ait Ben Haddou is where the stairs are. SO MANY STAIRS! And they’re old stairs, so they’re cobbled with a variety of beautiful rock in many different shapes and sizes. And being 1100 years old, they’re also uneven, which made climbing them challenging, but the views at the pseudo top (I didn’t get to the actual top, I stopped one tier down) really did make them worth it.

It was discovered by Hollywood several decades ago. Some movies and shows you might recognize that were filmed there are Lawrence of Arabia, Game of Thrones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Gladiator (1 and 2).

Partway back down from the top, we learned a little bit about how the Berber people communicated over long distances. Jokes were made about how it was the Instagram of the time, but primarily, messages were written on stretched goat skin and then carried by caravans between the villages. These messages were written using Moroccan tea and saffron, which, to my understanding, forms a colorless ink that can only be revealed by fire. The demonstration included creating an image using indigo and saffron for sky and desert sand. Mix the saffron with Moroccan tea and add more details, wave the paper over a flame and voila! Now there are camels and some sand dunes and many more details other than blue and yellow streaks across the page. It reminded me very much of the lemon juice “secret” codes I played with as a kid. Although those usually ended up with just small fires, and no revelation of secret writings.

MORE driving and then we were treated to learning about how rose water and oil are created. It takes 5000 kilos of roses to make 1 liter of rose water.

MORE driving and then we arrived in Tinghir and our hotel. Wonderful food and now it’s about time for bed. Tomorrow begins another very long day that will include CAMELS.

No philosophy tonight. Everyone just went to bed.