Tickets and Tours for Ouzoud Waterfalls Experiences

Ouzoud is the tallest waterfall in Morocco. It drops a hundred and ten metres down a red rock face in three stages, the longest of them seventy-five. The water is the El Abid river, in the Atlas foothills about a hundred and fifty kilometres north-east of Marrakesh.

Going down and coming back

The visit is a descent and a climb. A path drops from the car park through olive terraces and cafés to the pool, twenty minutes down and longer up. Old mill houses cling to the lip above.

Flat-bottomed boats push out into the spray for a few dirhams. Afternoon sun puts a rainbow across the lower drop. The pool at the foot is cold and swimmable, with nowhere to change.

The macaques in the gorge

Barbary macaques live in the gorge below. They are the only macaque species left outside Asia, and the only monkey north of the Sahara. They come down to the paths because people feed them.

That feeding is bad for the animals, and it is how bites happen. The species is endangered, with fewer than ten thousand left in Morocco and Algeria. The peanut sellers exist for the photograph.

Getting there and back

Nearly everyone arrives from Marrakesh, and the driving is the larger half. Two and a half hours each way leaves roughly three hours on site. That covers the descent, the boats and lunch.

Guided versions add the walk downstream into the gorge. A private car sets its own hour. That is most of the difference between the two.

Practical

• Water. Heaviest from March to May on Atlas snowmelt, and thin by September. It never stops entirely.
• The climb back. Steep steps in full sun, and the reason people underestimate this trip.
• Monkeys. Do not feed them, and do not carry food in your hand.
• Shoes. Wet rock and spray near the bottom. Grip, not sandals.
• Crowds. Coaches land between eleven and three. Either side of that the gorge is quiet.