Man living inside a mountain, cliffs with wholes: The Doors of the Sahara

Starting at the city of Essaouira, one of the main touristic cities in the Kingdom. The city was known to be a crucial passage point for ships to Africa (as Morocco is located at the Northern-West of the continent), thus was a very contested zone for many years. Countries like Spain, Portugal, Germany and France looked to control it as it would mean receiving taxes from the culturally diverse merchants at the port. The cultural heritage mainly comes from the succession of rulers over the city and its port. Today, it is a surfers' paradise as well as a musical mystery with its transe inducing "Gnaoui" music.

(Port of Essaouira, Morocco)

Still moving South, we come across the Berber regions of Tiznit and Mirleft. The climate changes here as the temperatures get really high, which makes it a good spot for the down season as the weather is usually perfect around November-December. The beaches are very distinctive there as a special phenomena formed over thousands of years: the mountains slowly gave way to sea water at their roots and thus started to gradually show some kind of gap or whole. Illustration below:

These gaps gradually became natural attractions for tourists to visit, either on foot or on the back of a camel (camel rides cost around 20MAD, equivalent to 1.5USD).

A curious encounter I made hiking through these mountain wholes was an old man who literally lived inside a mountain, as he lost everything he had to a tide that destroyed the whole village, taking his wife and two kids away from him. He did not want to show on the picture but I still took a picture of his place to be able to tell his story. He looked to me like a very spiritual man who had found peace within him and only wished to live the rest of his days by the sea. He sustained by fishing and by food and cloth donations from tourists and people of the region.

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