Ouarzazate: The Hollywood of Africa

January 6^th, 2025 

Ouarzazate is called the "Hollywood of Morocco" or "Hollywood of Africa" because its stunning desert landscapes, Atlas Mountains backdrop, and historic kasbahs provide epic settings for major film productions, hosting studios like Atlas Studios where films like Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, and Game of Thrones were shot, making it a major hub for the film industry in Africa.

 

There are a few studios on the outskirts of town and the main one that most tourists visit is called Atlas Studios.       

Driving through Ouarzazate towards the studio.

Looks like I'm here.

The long driveway.

The entrance.

Walking into the main area, the place had a bit of a feel of a tired Hollywood Studio.  There was a quite obviously fake jet fighter made of wood, styrofoam and fibreglass which was used in the movie 1980s “Jewel of the Nile”.  I wandered into the first large hangar-like building which contained a maze of fake stone lined corridors to simulate an Egyptian pyramid.

Atlas Studios!

The movie "The Mummy" was filmed here.

A scary dungeon.

It's interesting to see the backside of the sets.

I wandered around the grounds somewhat aimlessly…just seeing what there was to see.

It was a cold and windy day, even with the sun out.

I've always like trebuchets.

Chariot, pick yer chariot...

See the bow of a Viking looking ship on the right...not sure what movie that was.  Maybe it's not Viking.

Back to some Egyptian stuff.

I guess if you film it correctly...you only need the bottom half of the legs and feet.

A few different movies were filmed in this area.

This was for the movie "Kundun"...like in the previous video..."Haven't seen it".  Yup, I'm not the biggest movie buff.

The Testament of Moses.

It surprised me a bit...but those are real people on the other side of the well, dressed up in period costumes.

A walkthrough of some of the various sets.

I guess spots like this could be used in numerous films.

Some big temple...note the big hour glass of sand on the left.

A pharoah for a day!

I was a benevolent ruler.

Some random army vehicles with a medieval catapult on the left.

Actually there were a couople of catapults.

Yet another Egyptian scene.

This took me about eight attempts with my phone on a 10 second timer...who said walking like an Egyptian was easy.

For an additional 30 dirhams ($4.50 CAD), I added seeing the “Kingdom of Heaven” castle to my ticket.  I haven’t seen this 2005 movie by Ridley Scott so I had no idea what it was about.  Well, it was the highlight of the visit!

Starting out to the Kingdom of Heaven castle, it was about 2 km from the rest of the studio.

Getting closer.

Nearing the entrance.

I’ve always like knights and castles since I was a boy…and even though I’ve seen numerous castles in Europe, including Carcassonne in France which to me is a stereotypical medieval castle, and a good board game, this set was something else!

Inside the first of three sections.

Into the centre section.

The main entrance into the heart of the castle.

This castle blew me away.  I was snapping photos left, right and center.  Sorry, there are a lot of photos and videos in this post…but believe it or not, I took way more than these.  Enjoy!

An amazing looking hallway...

...but if you look up, the illusion is destroyed.

It looks so real.

The gladiator pit.

It looks so real...then you see behind the scenes.

The view from up on the castle walls.

Yup, I'm having a good time.

Looking back from where I started, you can see the middle section and then the first section.

This is the front gate section that extends off of the middle section.

Walking the walls.

The snowy Atlas Mountains in the distance.

Some camels walking outside the wall, and the tower of the solar power station.

A lone trebuchet left sitting out there.

It would have been interesting to see one of these it real action in the medieval times.

I was surprised at some of the detail on the woodwork.

The second gate into the main section.

Out on a wall extension that would have made the castle look even bigger than it was in the movie.

It was very windy in this turret.

A siege tower and battering ram in the distance.

Octi on the right gives you a sense of scale.

This is snapped from the end of the wall extension.

Lots of scaffolding that has been holding this place together for over 20 years!

A fancy section above the main gate.

The front gate.

The front gate had a different look of "fake stone" than the rest of the castle.  I'm curious to see the movie and see why, or if this was used as the entrance to another castle.

Again, look at little Octi there.

It looks amazingly real, until you look at the scaffolding on the right and left side of the picture.

The siege tower and battering ram.

I climbed up, almost to the top.  It was a bit dodgy to get to the very top.

A battering ram.

I asked the staff member, an older guy who didn't speak English and I questioned his French, to snap a photo of me...and asked if he could not get that set of stairs in the pic...

...well, that fell on deaf ears.

Just as I was about to leave, a couple of people showed up on horses and rode through the side gate.  It looks so much more authentic with a horse or two!

Well done if you made it this far...as I mentioned, I love medieval castles!