Shops Inside Ait Ben-Haddou
When I saw photos of Ait Ben-Haddou I knew I had to come here. I came here as part of a group tour because it was the easiest way to get here on your own. Everybody is then herded as part of a group tour with a multilingual tour guide who seems to be very knowledgeable about the site. Ait Ben-Haddou is a fortified village built on a hill. I saw several of these hillside villages on the way to Ait Ben-Haddou so I can see that this is not something unique but Ait Ben-Haddou is still the most impressive one I have seen so far. After all, it won’t be used as part of movie sets if it wasn’t nice.
Walking Inside Ait Ben-Haddou
Apparently, Ait Ben-Haddou used to be a settlement for Muslim and Jewish settlers. It was a time where both an co-exist in harmony, then again, the two religions have always co-existed in harmony in Morocco. The name itself is Arabic in origin, Ait is the name of the tribe of the people who lived here, while Ben Haddou means the son of Haddou. That implies that the place was built by the sons of some person named Haddou. These days, not a lot of people live in the ksar anymore. Though there are still our families holding out here. Most people live along the main road now but most of them are probably not from the area and are only here because of the tourist trade.
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