Ouarzazate

The city at the crossroads of the south — where the road from Marrakech over the Tizi n'Tichka splits toward Zagora and the Draa or east toward the Dades and Todra. The French built it as a garrison town in 1928. It became a film city by accident — the light, the kasbahs, the desert landscapes made it the location of choice for everything from Lawrence of Arabia to Gladiator. The city itself is unremarkable. What surrounds it is not.