We hired a driver for a one day excursion to the Atlas mountain from Marrakech. The route we took first went to Lake Lalla Takerkoust, a man-made reservoir, from there we drove through a mountain pass toward Asni, passing several small berber villages in the mountains.

Asni is a nice sized village with an active local market. It is also the site of the festival Moussem of Moulay Ibrahim, which was described in detail by Elizabeth Fernea in her book "A street in Marrakech".

After Asni, we drove up the mountain road toward Imlil, which is the base for trekking onto Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa at 4100 meters. Imlil is also known in the urban myth as the site for movie "Seven Years in Tibet", whereas it was actually the location used by another movie about Tibet: Scorsese's Kundun.

On our way back to Marrakech from Imlil, we stopped at Richard Branson's hotel, Kasbah Tamadot. We asked for a guided tour from the hotel staff and he happily obliged. The hotel was spectular and well worth a stop. [ February 2007 ]

Click a picture to see a larger view.

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