Full-Day 4x4: Rissani, Fossils & the Desert

The old caravan capital of Rissani and its market, the fossil workshops, the nomads of the black desert and Khamlia, all in one day.

In the morning we drive to Rissani, the town that grew on the ruins of Sijilmassa, the great caravan city of the Middle Ages. Its market is one of the most authentic in Morocco: dates of every kind, spices, sheep and donkeys in the animal market, blacksmiths and the famous 'donkey parking'. We also visit the old ksar and the mausoleum of Moulay Ali Cherif, ancestor of the royal family.

After a lunch of the local speciality, the 'Berber pizza' baked in a clay oven, we visit a fossil workshop, where stones full of ammonites and trilobites from the ancient sea are cut and polished. The afternoon is spent around the dunes: tea with a nomad family, Gnawa music in Khamlia and, to finish, the sunset from the dunes or a transfer to our camp.