Ouzoud

The Ouzoud Falls are the highest in Morocco — three cascades dropping roughly 110 metres into a gorge lined with olive trees, carob, and wild fig. The name comes from the Amazigh word for olive.

The falls are 150 kilometres northeast of Marrakech, about two and a half hours by road through the Tadla plain and up into the Middle Atlas foothills. The drive is not scenic until the last 30 minutes, when the landscape turns green and the gorge appears.

Barbary macaques live in the trees around the falls. The monkeys are habituated to visitors and will take food from your hand, though the guides will tell you not to feed them. Rainbow mist hangs in the gorge when the sun is right. Small boats cross the pool at the base.

The falls are fullest between March and June, when snowmelt from the Atlas feeds the Oued el-Abid. In late summer, the flow thins. The site is popular with Moroccan families on weekends. Visit on a weekday morning for the gorge to yourself.