Filming locations in Ouarzazate

On the desert side of the Atlas, the fortified mud-brick village of Aït Benhaddou has played half of antiquity on screen, and for set-jetters its most famous turn is in Gladiator. Rising sheer from the dust, the ksar stands in for Zucchabar, the provincial slave town where the enslaved Maximus is first thrown into the arena. The earthen towers and stacked kasbahs look almost unchanged from the way Ridley Scott framed them in 2000.

Reaching it is part of the pleasure. Aït Benhaddou is a UNESCO-listed village across a shallow river from the roadside, gained by a short walk and, depending on the season, a paddle across the streambed. Local guides linger at the entrance and will show you through the warren of kasbahs for a tip, threading up to the granary at the top for the long view over the palm groves.

The village sits a couple of hours over the High Atlas from Marrakech, on the road to Ouarzazate, the dusty town that has grown into Africa's busiest film backlot. Many travellers make it a long day trip from Marrakech, but staying a night nearby lets you catch the ksar in the gold of early morning or late afternoon, before and after the tour coaches.

Come prepared for the desert. There is little shade on the climb through the village, so bring water, a hat and sun cover, and wear shoes you do not mind getting wet at the river crossing. The light is fierce at midday and magical at the edges of the day, which is exactly when the mud walls glow the colour of the film.

Ouarzazate rewards anyone who wants to go deeper, with film studios on its outskirts and a string of other kasbahs and oasis valleys within reach. But Aït Benhaddou is the headline, a real, lived-in monument that has been a doorway to ancient Rome, Egypt and beyond, and still feels like the edge of the known world.