Merzouga Dunes – Sunset in the Sahara

Dale Dunlop The Maritime Explorer

Monday, November 24th, 2025

In the last post on this October, 2025 Adventures Abroad Quintessential Morocco tour our group began exploring the Tafilet oasis, the largest in the world and its principle settlement Rissani. In this post we will depart from the usual method of transportation and hop in SUVs that will transport us to the Merzouga area where we will then ride camels to the base of one of huge Saharan dunes. Those with strong legs will climb the dune to watch the Saharan sunset. This promises to be a real highlight of the entire tour so I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

Merzouga is approximately 40 kms. (25 miles) from Rissani and you can get there via a paved road, but if you want to experience the rocky desert known as a hamada then you need to go off road. A hamada is actually just a rocky plateau where all the sand has been blown away. Most of the Sahara Desert is actually hamada and not the sand dunes that everyone traditionally associates with that name. Merzouga is not a town per se, but rather a collection of tourist facilities at the base of Erg Chebbi one of the largest sand dunes in the Sahara. Essentially the sand blown off the hamada had to end up somewhere and Erg Chebbi is the result.

OK, let’s get going.

We are divided into groups of four and each gets into an SUV like the one in the photo and head out across the mostly flat and rocky and bumpy hamada. Sights like the one above contrast the age old method of crossing the Sahara and the now preferred method, although unlike camels that go for days without water, the SUVs need their gas every day.

Not far from Rissani we make our first stop on the way to Merzouga. We ended the last post in a fossil shop and now we get out to have a look at fossils in the raw as it were. While the desert floor doesn’t look like much, once you put a sprinkle of water on it the fossils positively jump out at you.

Desert Fossils on the Way to Merzouga — Desert Fossils

The long tapered fossils are orthocones which are found in Morocco by the millions.

Back in the SUVs we continue our journey to Merzouga, passing the occasional abandoned dwellings that are anybody’s guess as to how old they are. For some reason I couldn’t help but think of the Alamo as we passed this one. I could well imagine embattled French Foreign Legionnaires surrounded by attacking Berbers on all sides.

Before reaching Merzouga we have one more stop at a dwelling that is not abandoned. This is a nomadic Berber tent where a woman is living with her four children. Her husband is working somewhere else in the area.

We are invited in for tea. I have no idea where she gets the water from as there is no sign of a well.

A short time later we start seeing huge structures seemingly appearing out of nowhere. At first I thought they must be the legendary Saharan mirages, but as we get closer I see that they are actually kasbahs, all modern resorts that are here because of the nearby presence of the Erg Chebbi.

We head into Kasbah Tombouctou where we will stay the night. Note the motorbikes. There were a group of very serious desert racers from Spain and Italy staying here as well. Merzouga is used as a training ground for the famous Paris to Dakar rally which is considered to be the ultimate in endurance racing.

Kasbah Tombouctou, Merzouga — Kasbah Tombouctou

Now I have a confession to make; Alison and I did not go on the camel ride. She was suffering from a serious case of stomach woes and I did not think it the right thing to do to leave her in her sick bed and go off on my own. We have ridden camels before so it was not that we were going to miss something we had never experienced, which was the case for most of the others.

However, I have put together a gallery of photos that others took and I think you’ll agree on seeing them that this is definitely reason enough to sign up for this trip. It is truly a unique experience.

Double click to open one and double click again to enlarge.