Merzouga and erg Chebbi

Merzouga is a small village at the border of one of the two big saharan ergs of Morocco, erg Chebbi. (Erg is a vast area of sand desert and dunes, when reg is used to speak about a rocky desert). A tall ochre arch marks the entrance, and a straight roads leeds directly to the dunes. The athmosphere reminds a little bit of Italo western, with the streets under a radiant heat...

When moroccan desert is mostly made of stony aeras, Chebbi's landscape are purely awesome, with large dunes of an intense orange sand, which summits rolls over several kilometres. Going from one dune to another, you'll walk into depressions, where you see nothing but sand, and loose all your marks. Then, climbing on the next dune, you spot a tree, a tent far away... desert is never empty.

Over a surface of nearly 100 square kilometres, dunes suceed to dunes, with a maximum altitude over 150 metres. 150 metres, which are pretty easy on a camel's back, rather harder by foot !

Many birds live in the area, specially in the north eastern part, remote from the road and less visited.

Merzouga lake

Camel herd in Merzouga

Camel herd in Merzouga

Merzouga lake is a real wonder, a large area of water nearly at the foot of the dunes. It's a place where the nomads bring their herds to drink and graze. The view of the dunes reflected in the water, when the lake is really full, is wonderful.

A sensitive environment, to be protected.

Desert is an easily dammageable environment. To preserve it, and avoid destructing it with tourism, some basic attentions : avoid pollution and don't throw garbages in the dunes, avoid to dammage the flora by walking on it, when some small plants need months to grow out of the sand.

Amidst Merzouga dunes

Amidst Merzouga dunes