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This involves a trip into a part of the High Atlas less frequented by visitors. You can see a working town on the Haouz Plain at Tamesloht, then head for Amizmiz, where there are some good short walks in the foothills behind the village. If you have time, and own car, take the winding mountain road over to Ouirgane, a village with a couple of simple auberge-type hotels on the Taroudant road. With an early start, you could go out from Marrakech via Amizmiz, across to the Taroudant road, lunch at Ouirgane and take in the medieval mosque at Tin Mal.
Sights
Tamesloht
Take the main S501 road south out of Marrakech. A few kilometres after the Club royal equestre, the road forks. Go right for Tamesloht and eventually Amizmiz.
Tamesloht, out on the Haouz Plain, 3 km to the west of the S507, was famed as home of the miracle-working man of ‘366 sciences’, one Abdallah ben Hussein El Hassani. Today’s visitor finds a ruined kasbah in a typical rural settlement much affected by the droughts of recent years. Richer farmers run water pumps to find water at greater and greater depths. The less fortunate have abandoned their land as simply unprofitable. The tourist attraction? On the main road you’ll see shops selling the large terracotta food storage jars now popular for plants in the tasteful houses of Marrakech.
Amizmiz and around
See directions for Tamesloht. There are regular buses (2 hrs, 30 mins), and much quicker grands taxis, to and from Bab Rob in Marrakech.
At the end of the S507, 55 km southwest from Marrakech, Amizmiz has been famed as the home town of acrobats since medieval times. Like many rural settlements, it has a saintly founder, one Sidi Ahmed. As far as sights go, there is a semi-ruined kasbah and an important Tuesday morning souk. Otherwise, it’s a stopping place on the round-the-mountains route to Ouirgane – or a starting point for some short walks into the Atlas. The post office, bank and cybercafé are handily located in a new district on the main road as you arrive from Marrakech. Coming in by car, turning off right just after the ‘administrative zone’, drive up into the foothills to the maison forestière. There is some gentle walking along a track above the Assif Anougal, with views down over the villages.
From Amizmiz, there is also a metalled road eastwards to Ouirgane. The road runs across rolling open land as far as the Oued Nfis, where there is a ford (radier in French on the detailed maps). Then you drive up to the Tizi-n-Ouzla (1,090 m) where you get a splendid view of the Assif Amassine valley, with the Toubkal Massif as backdrop. (There’s also a mouflon reserve signed near the pass.) There then follows a winding descent to the junction with the S501: go right for Ouirgane or left for Asni and Marrakech. NB In a wet year, clay from the hillside may crumble onto the upper sections of this Amizmiz to Ouirgane road.
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