Morocco's fossil trade: what's real, and where it comes from

The area around Erfoud and Rissani, on the road to the Sahara, was ocean floor back in the Devonian period, something like 400 million years ago. That's why the region is so rich in trilobites, ammonites, and orthoceras (the long, straight-shelled relatives of modern squid), all turning up regularly in the local limestone.

A real trade has grown out of that geology. Workshops cut and polish slabs of the fossil-bearing stone into tables, sinks, and tiles, leaving the fossils visible in the finished surface. This isn't a tourist invention; people have been doing it for decades. The bigger workshops are worth a stop just to watch the cutting and polishing, not only to browse the shop floor.

Not everything sold as a "genuine trilobite" actually is one, though. Composite pieces circulate, and so do resin casts painted to look like stone; telling them apart isn't always easy if it's your first time buying. Stick to an established workshop instead of a roadside stand, and ask directly how a piece was prepared. That's the simplest way to know what you're getting.

For most trips this ends up being a stop, not the whole point of a day. A route between the Atlas and the Sahara can usually fit in an hour at a fossil workshop without throwing off the rest of the itinerary.