I visited the location of the original Gladiator film – This is why this Moroccan city is the new Hollywood

Staring about the dried out earth to the village of Ait Ben-Haddou, it was easy to imagine that she heard the collision of the swords of days pass by.

Ait Ben-Haddou is on the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in southern Morocco.

Many travelers make the four -hour ride here from Marrakesh, but I had flown directly from Stansted to the nearby city of Ouarzazate, just a 30 -minute drive away.

This was my first stop on a week long journey including Morocco in the south of the country and back, after the traditional caravan route to the Sahara.

Just on the outskirts of Ait Ben-Haddou offered our Hotel Riad Caravane a unique mix of Moroccan architecture and modern comfort with exceptional food and service.

Ait Ben-Haddou, now one UNESCO World heritage site once earned its money by trading salt.

But nowadays Ait Ben-Haddou and nearby Ouarzazate are famous for something completely different.

Locally known as Ouarzawood in honor of his film references, this region has offered the background for many blockbuster films and TV series, Including Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and his follow -up Gladiator 2.

In the original Gladiator film, Maximus is sold in slavery and forced to train as a gladiator.

Ait Ben-Haddou was the scene of his first fight. An arena was built for the film with the help of traditional mud stones, so that it goes together with the existing architecture.

It is not only Gladiator filmed here. Scenes from Lawrence of Arabia, Game of Thrones and The Mummy also have its earthen buildings and streets.

The Augustzon was fierce when I entered the village, but it was easy to find shade behind the high walls. A complicated Warren or Alleyways houses a number of stores that were many of the same that you would expect in the Souks van Marrakesh.

These sit next to each other with traditional houses and housing animals stalls.

Like many of the locals, my village guide Mohammed also works as an extra when the film teams arrive. During a quick tour through his house, he proudly showed the sword and the shield that he waved in Game of Thrones.

Thirty minutes’ drive from Ait Ben-Haddou, on the outskirts of Ouarzazate, is the Atlas Film Studios, one of the largest in the world, opened in 1983.

The big and good Van Hollywood have filmed here, including Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Leonardo di Caprio and, most recently, the cast of Gladiator 2.

I left the film world and went out of town to fulfill Oasis.

Even in the height of the summer dryness, this quiet, lush place had large pools of water in the trees surrounded with trees. Local women washed their clothes and dried them here and there on the bushes. I was very happy to spot turtles and frogs in the water.

In the coming days our journey gradually brought me to the east, and came closer to the Sahara.

There were some memorable stops on the road. The Dades region, known as the valley of the roses, is littered with pink colored villages.

The smell of the roses that are grown here hangs in the air.

Women from this area, many who work together in cooperatives, choose 700 tonnes of rose petals that are made into rose water, used in beauty products, cooking and aromatherapy.

Continue, we reached the impressive Todra Gorge, a series of limestone river canyons with pure cliffs that rise to 300 meters.

That evening I arrived in Merzouga, the gateway to the Sahara, just before sunset.

Our beautiful hotel – Riad Serai – was literally, on the edge of a part of the desert called Very Chebbi.

This large sea of ​​dunes formed by wind blown sand that could see as far as I could.

I walked a small way and sat down. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the wind that had just started to pick up.

In the distance I was able to make the silhouette of camels that carry riders over the peaks of the dunes.

The next day a 4×4 took me deeper into the desert. I stayed the night in a luxury desert camp.

The driver navigated his way through the deep orange sand as if he was following an unseen highway.

We stopped to look for fossils.

The heat was burning while we walked, eyes down the rocky sand scanning down. I had found an ammonite within a few minutes. Only a few seconds later there were more.

Arriving in the camp I was greeted with traditional Moroccan mint tea.

The tents were slightly different – with air conditioning, a standing bath and a very comfortable bed, this was the best at its best.

But the best was yet to come.

While the sun began to dive, I climbed awkwardly on a camel and was led to the dunes to look at the sunset.

In those few minutes when the light faded, the sand seemed to switch in color from orange, to pink and then red.

Back in the camp, all the guests were chatting around the fire place and listening to traditional live music.

When everything was quiet, I was staring at the crystal clear night sky on my back. I was told that the chance to see a meteor was high that evening.

Minutes later a shooting star followed a path directly above it.

A suitable end to a truly stars -littered journey.