Taourirt Kasbah

知.识分子

5.0/5

Outstanding

There are many desert tour introductions on the streets and hotels in Marrakech, which is very convenient for traveling the next day. At 7:30, we set off for the journey to Ouarzazate, the gateway to the desert. The scenery on both sides of the road gradually changed from wheat fields to wastelands, with clusters of weeds crawling on the ground like moss. Finally, it became a bare hillside. The Atlas Mountains stretch across northwest Africa, separating the southwestern Mediterranean coastal area from the Sahara Desert, winding for 2,400 kilometers. The name of the mountain range is taken from Atlas, the Hercules who supported the sky with his shoulders in ancient Greek mythology. The ancient Greeks named it after this, meaning that this is the westernmost end of the world. From Marrakech to Ouarzazate, you have to cross the Atlas Mountains, and the winding mountain road turns uphill all the way. The old driver drove the car very fast, and arrived at the first stop, Ait ben Haddou, at nearly twelve o'clock. This Kasabahs (castle) was a pass established by the Berbers four hundred years ago to control the golden salt trade route from South Africa (black Africa south of the Sahara Desert) to Venice. The castle is built on a hill by the river, controlling the valley below. It was originally abandoned. It was rediscovered by European tourists in the 1960s and was named a World Heritage Site in 1987. Director Spiegel and others have filmed movies here, such as "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Gladiator", which made this increasingly forgotten village famous, and hundreds of thousands of tourists come here every year. Ait ben Haddou is also ranked second in the list of popular locations for "Game of Thrones". There are only eight households in the castle now, and most of the houses have collapsed, with no signs of their former glory. They rely on some new houses built during the filming to support the scene. The village built on the hillside is staggered and quite imposing. The outline is like Manhattan in New York and Lujiazui in Shanghai. The construction of the houses here is the same as the dry-rammed earth in China. First, straw and clay are rammed into large bricks and piled up to form walls. Then, beams made of palm trunks and rafters made of reeds are laid on top, and finally, clay and limestone roofs (Lime Chalk) are laid. In the hot desert, the thick walls separate the heat outside. Walking in the corridor, there is a cool breeze.