A bit of North Africa - Printable Version

A bit of North Africa - Printable Version

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A bit of North Africa - netllama - 2024-03-16

Continuing my periodic series of trips to the world's deserts, I spent time in February in North Africa (specifically Morocco and Tunisia). This was originally supposed to be Algeria & Tunisia, but for logistical reasons, that didn't work out. I'd never been to Morocco before, so it counted to my total country count (78), but to be perfectly honest, Morocco didn't amaze me. It was _fine_, but felt like a touristy, vaguely African, predominantly Muslim country sitting at the periphery of Europe. That said, I enjoyed Tunisia a lot, and would consider going again if the opportunity arose. Tunisia was not that touristy, and had a crazy amount of spectacular historic sites to explore (Roman, and also somewhat more recent Muslim). But enough of my rambling, you're here for the photos, right?

First Morocco...

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PXL_20240208_080543346 - largest cemetery in Rabat, overlooking the Atlantic coast

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IMG_3537 - Roman ruins of Volubilis

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PXL_20240213_100210402 - Ouzoud Falls, tallest in the country at 330ft

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IMG_3639 - crossing the high Atlas

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IMG_3645 - late winter in the high Atlas village of Tadant

And on to Tunisia...

IMG_3660 - the Grand Mosque of Kairouen, and also the oldest (remaining) in all of Africa

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IMG_3679 - the Ribat of Monastir, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea

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IMG_3690_-_IMG_3729_blended_fused - the amphitheater of El Jem, largest outside of Rome, capable of holding 30k spectators

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IMG_3880-bw0 - into the Sahara

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IMG_3902 - hours of driving through dunes with wild camels everywhere

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PXL_20240217_145534481 - ruins of Guermassa, and its old mosque

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IMG_3769 - Ksar Oulad Soltane, used as shelter and storage long long ago

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IMG_3748 - ruins of Gattoufa

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PXL_20240218_143928820 - Ksar Ghilane, the southernmost Roman settlement

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PXL_20240218_151522878 - oasis of Ksar Ghilane

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IMG_3897 - a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Other than Death Valley, most of the filming locations for the Star Wars films were in Tunisia. This is what's left of Luke's home (on Tatooine, which is actually a corruption of the real city of Tatouine about 2 hours drive away). Screenshot for comparison from the movie is here. Getting there was a 15 minute drive across the dry lake bed.

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IMG_3888-bw0 - one more looking east

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IMG_3916 - the Mos Espa filming site, now infested with junky souvenir stands

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PXL_20240220_063643471 - sunrise at Mides canyon, barely 3 miles from the Algerian border

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PXL_20240220_062652800 - old Mides at sunrise

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PXL_20240220_132141527 - the theater in the Roman city of Dougga

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PXL_20240221_081524732 - spectacular 2000 year old mosaics in the Roman ruins of Bulla Regia

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PXL_20240222_111231092 - paying respects at the (only) American WW2 cemetery in Africa. All of the American war dead & missing from the battles in Africa are resting here, just outside of Tunis.

For anyone wanting to read more of my words, a detailed, day by day trip report is available here. Way way more photos are posted here.

thanks for reading!

RE: A bit of North Africa - Beardilocks - 2024-03-17

Awesome man! Love it. Tunisia looks amazing. Might have to get it on my list.

RE: A bit of North Africa - netllama - 2024-03-17

(2024-03-17, 10:09 AM)Beardilocks Wrote: Awesome man! Love it. Tunisia looks amazing. Might have to get it on my list.

You really should go. There's so much to explore there.

RE: A bit of North Africa - bbbb - 2024-03-18

Really great pictures as always. I was thinking Tatooine, Episode 1, looking at the Ksar Oulad Soltane pic. But lo and behold the Lars homestead was further down.

RE: A bit of North Africa - netllama - 2024-03-18

(2024-03-18, 02:46 PM)bbbb Wrote: Really great pictures as always. I was thinking Tatooine, Episode 1, looking at the Ksar Oulad Soltane pic. But lo and behold the Lars homestead was further down.

Yep, there are a bunch of other SW filming sites scattered around Tunisia.

RE: A bit of North Africa - edward - 2024-03-21

Great photos and report. In your blog you referred to a number of police checkpoints. Why so many?

RE: A bit of North Africa - netllama - 2024-03-21

(2024-03-21, 05:44 PM)edward Wrote: Great photos and report. In your blog you referred to a number of police checkpoints. Why so many?

Thanks!

I don't know why there are so many police checkpoints, beyond some countries are just that way. Some Google searches provide a few theories, but no single explanation.

I've been to other countries that are similar, so its definitely not unique in Morocco or Tunisia.

RE: A bit of North Africa - DeathValleyDazed - 2024-03-23

Both countries look amazing to me and thanks for sharing your experiences!

RE: A bit of North Africa - MojaveGeek - 2024-04-16

Only just getting to this. Too busy - time in Utah, eclipse travel, granddaughter's birth. I love your pix as always and look forward to reading the full report. You'll have a blast in Algeria whenever you get there. Good luck with Libya though.