Cinema in Morocco: famous movies filmed here, and where

Ouarzazate has been a working film location since the 1980s, when Atlas Studios and later CLA Studios were built to take advantage of the region's light, dry climate, and landscape variety, desert, mountains, and kasbah-style architecture within a short drive of each other. Locals sometimes call it "Ouallywood" for exactly that reason.

The list of productions that have used the area is long. Lawrence of Arabia used Moroccan locations in the early 1960s. Gladiator filmed key scenes at and around Ait Benhaddou. Kingdom of Heaven, Babel, and The Mummy all used the region for different reasons, mostly landscape and light, not any single recurring set. More recently, Game of Thrones used Ait Benhaddou and Essaouira as stand-ins for the fictional cities of Yunkai and Astapor across several seasons.

Part of the appeal for productions is simple. Morocco can double convincingly for the Middle East, ancient Rome, or a fantasy setting, at lower cost and with more reliable weather than shooting in the actual historical locations. Decades of productions have also built up enough local crew experience to support big shoots.

For visitors, Ait Benhaddou is the most recognisable film location on a typical route. It's worth knowing that what looks like a single ancient site has quietly played dozens of different fictional places on screen, without that changing how genuinely old, and still lived-in, it actually is.