Morocco is a land of contrasts. The North African Nation provided an amazing diversity of scenery, history, and culture, all packed in an area just slightly larger than the state of California. Over the next 5 days, I hope to provide a window into what that meant for me in my 10-day circuit of this amazing nation.

I Medina in Marrakech

Jemaa el Fna can truly be called the heart of Marrakech. A riot of shops selling local crafts, food-stalls selling local gastronomic delights, bands of street performers singing and dancing to local tunes, and a mass of people constantly moving around, all combine to form the epicenter of one of the oldest cities of Morocco. I spent hours getting lost in the countless shops of the souks in the medina, smelling perfumes and spices of hundred kinds, listening to a cacophony of a dozen languages, seeing the entire spectrum of colors on display in the various shops, and savoring hundreds of local delicacies: this place can truly overwhelm one's senses.

Marrakech

II Sand Dunes in Erg Chebbi

The deserts of Morocco present another side of this diverse country. Straddling the northern edge of great Sahara desert, the southern part of Morocco is a vast dry landscape replete with a smorgasbord of different geological features, including sand dunes, large dry gorges, long monoclines and anticlines forming oddly shaped ridges and mountains, oasis supporting a variety of flora and fauna, as well as various facets of human civilization such as dry dusty villages, tiny campgrounds and the odd farmlands.

I was naturally gravitated to the sand-dunes, and when an opportunity came to spend a night amidst the sand-dunes, I couldn't pass up. The smooth shapes of the parabolic sand dunes were quite the photographic subjects under the warm afternoon light, and I spent many hours wandering dune to dune, in search of the perfect curve.

Here is one such exposure where the windward slope of a sand-dune captures the late afternoon sun.

Erg Chebbi
 

III Lake Tislit - High Atlas

Snow-capped mountain ranges and alpine wilderness are not regions typically associated with Morocco's desert environments and crowded urban areas. But they do exist. And while access to such regions are difficult, they are sublimely beautiful.

Away from the crowded urban areas in the north, Atlas Mountains, the spine of Morocco, runs east-west folding up the earth with very unique geological patterns. At 2500-3000m of elevation lie high mountain villages that blend into the landscape, cheerful farmlands replete with grazing sheep and livestock, steep gorges that drop down from snow-capped peaks, and lush green meadows on the sunny slopes. And between all these, narrow and bumpy mountain roads twist and turn their way connecting the different villages with the urban areas.

Lacking a proper GPS, navigation was challenging, and the driving was tortuous. But the spectacular solitude and beauty more than made up for the difficulty in getting there. Here is one such large alpine lake, Lake Tislit, nestled within the snow-capped peaks of Haut Atlas Oriental National Park, on a chilly morning at 2500m.

Imilchil

IV Todhra Gorge

As the line between shadow and light slowly crept down towards the base of the gorge, the cliff walls started coming to life under the warm morning light: epiphytes clinging to the cliffs started opening up, birds began to flutter about, and insects buzzed around. In the shadow region, life was still cold, mainly due to the icy springs that shared space with the road in this beautiful red sandstone gorge amidst the Moroccan desert.

Whilst a popular destination in the tourist map, the throngs of tourists buses, picnickers and hawkers hadn't reached here yet this early in the morning, and in that solitude, I was able to soak in the magnificence of this geological formation. I would go on to see many more amazing features in my driven from the desert to the Atlas mountains, but the Todhra gorge stood out.

Todhra Gorge

V Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen, an island of blue in a desert of brown. Walking from the bus station set outside amidst the modern-era into the crowded medina was like entering a different planet: the walls, the pathways, the houses, the doors, the arches, and the houses had an ethereal blue color that permeated everything. And it was not just a single shade of blue - it was a kaleidoscope of different shades of blue.

It was a sensory experience that I had not expected, and even after a couple of days in the village, that surprise had not subsided. Every lost turn I made in the crooked alleyways uncovered a new photographic subject and it made the random Brownian motion through the medina ever more worthwhile. Perhaps the most redeeming aspect was stepping away from the souvenir shops and into the residential areas, and capturing the everyday activities of the locals.

This is one such scene looking into a set of steps leading to a few residences. It is a very famous and oft-photographed location due to the contrasting hues provided by the colorful pots suspended from the blue walls of the alley.

Chefchaouen