Where is Monkey Fingers Rock Formation located?

Monkey Fingers Rock Formation is located in dades-valley, Morocco.

Monkey Fingers Rock Formation

The eroded rock formations above Aït Arbi in the upper Dades Valley — columns of pale limestone worn by water and wind into forms that resemble fingers, hands, or whatever the traveller needs them to be. The Moroccan name is more direct: the Hands of God. The formations are best at sunrise when the low light catches the pale stone against the dark gorge below.

A geological formation in the Dades Gorge — eroded sandstone pillars shaped like elongated fingers, rising 30–40 metres from the gorge floor. The name "Monkey Fingers" (or "Doigts de Singe" in the French used by local guides) comes from the shape of the pillars, though the resemblance requires imagination.

The formation is about 15 kilometres from Boumalne, visible from the road on the western side of the gorge. The pillars are sedimentary rock — layers of sandstone and conglomerate eroded by water and wind into vertical columns. The colour shifts through the day: grey in morning shade, orange in afternoon sun.

There is a viewpoint on the opposite side of the gorge. The pillars are more impressive at a distance, where the scale is apparent. Up close they are rock; from across the canyon they are architecture.