Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate is a city in southern Morocco and the capital of the province of the same name. It is also known as the "gateway to the desert."

geography

Located at the meeting of the valleys of Wadi Ouarzazate and Dades (from the High Atlas) which form the Oued Draa downstream of their confluence, is the nerve center of a vast region of southern Morocco . Ouarzazate evokes both the southern foothills of the High Atlas and the nearby desert.

Countless kasbahs mud, mountains and arid plains, valleys and lush oases, palm groves and villages of red earth and ocher are the charm of the area and give it a tourist attraction.

The symbol of the city is the Taourirt Kasbah (the cons) that belonged to the Glaoui, it would have been built in the mid eighteenth century. It is represented in the new $ 50 dirhams and adjoins the medina.

The town of Grand Ouarzazate extends from the south side of the river through the village of Tabount - sometimes called "Ouarzazate-South" - part, as the kasbah Tifoultoute, rural town in Tarmigte1.
history

In 1928, the French colonial power in fact a garrison town. Militarily, it is the basis of aviation against the famous Ait Atta tribe fighting fiercely against the troops of Henri de Bournazel ("man in the red cloak", killed in Morocco in 1933) until 1934 , when the rebel leader Assou Oubasslam goes to French to prevent the massacre of entrenched in the mountains populations.

In December 1942, the General Nogues and Patton are visiting Ouarzazate.
economy

The city of Ouarzazate is booming on tourism and film plans. Ouarzazate has an international airport and is accessible by road from Marrakech (4 hours by bus, taxi 3:30) via the Tizi n'Tichka.
film activities

It is one of the most sought after by filmmakers from around the world Moroccan sites. Besides the scenery, one of the strengths of this film is rather the quality of light, with a bright sun on average 300 days per year2. In the 1960s, Ouarzazate is starting to become a popular place to film directors of péplums2 and established his popularity with the completion of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, including the shot of Ait Ben Haddou site, small village close Ouarzazate has subsequently been heritage listed humanity2.

Ouarzazate is home to the studios of the Atlas Corporation and a film museum, which displays relics of sets and costumes used for films shot in Ouarzazate, including those of Kingdom of Heaven or Kundun2.

List of films and television series partially or entirely filmed in Ouarzazate3 (the films are listed in chronological order, the years referring to their release date):

solar Energy

As part of the Moroccan Solar Plan, the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) is the developer for construction near Ouarzazate, a solar thermal power plant, the first phase of 160 MW is expected to be operational in 2017 the winning consortium was appointed in September 2012, after an international tender 5 It consists of companies ACWA (Saudi Arabia), Aries Ingenieria y Sistema (Spain), TSK (Spain) who started Construction 6 for the second phase, a new tender was launched and companies were pre-qualified for the finale7.