Djebel Zagora

Across the valley from Zagora are two mountains. Djebel Zagora is strictly speaking the bulky one, with a military post on top, but the name is also used for the smaller, sugarloaf hill above camping de la Montagne. Watching the sunset from the slopes of the mountain is something of a tradition. Then turn left almost at once at the river to follow the road/irrigation channel to camping de la Montagne. Here, swing right on the rough track which leads to pass between the two peaks, then bends back, rising across the hillside to make an elbow bend on spur. This is the popular viewpoint - and just feasible by 4x4 car. The views are startling : you look out across the palmery to further ksour, to the Djebel Sarhro, and even to a stretch of sand dunes to the south. There are ruins a little downhill of an eleventh-century Almoravid fort, built as an outpost against the powerful rulers of Tafilalt; later it was used to protect the caravans passing below, to and from Timbuktu. The road subsequently goes on to the military fort on the summit (entry forbidden) but the view gains little; from the spur a footpath runs across and down the hillside and can be followed back down to the road just opposite la Fibule. On foot you can climb the mountain more directly on an old zigzag footpath up from near the hotel kasbah asmaa.