Rose hedges
Damask roses edging the fields in spring.
FuriousYogi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Benh LIEU SONG from Torcy, France — CC BY-SA 2.0 · مصطفى ملو — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Matthias Bethke — CC BY-SA 4.0 · مصطفى ملو — CC BY-SA 4.0
Kelaat M'Gouna, a town of 17,737 people (2024 census) in Tinghir province, stands where the M'Goun river meets the Dadès. It is Morocco's rose capital: Damask roses grow as hedges around the fields, and Rose de Kelâat M'Gouna-Dadès has been a protected designation of origin since 2011, its rose water since 2018. Its Amazigh name, Tighremt n Imgounen, means fortress of the Imgounen, a local tribe. Oral tradition credits pilgrims and traders returning from the East with the rose, though no written record confirms it; some travel guides credit the French, under whose Protectorate the first rose-water distillery reportedly opened in 1938. Official figures put the fields at about 1,020 hectares and the average crop at some 3,700 tonnes. From late April into May the flowers are picked at dawn, mostly by local women, before the heat harms them; cooperatives and distilleries turn them into rose water, essential oil, soaps and creams. Each May the Rose Festival brings Amazigh music and dance, a produce fair and a carnival of floats led by the year's Miss Rose. Craftsmen in nearby Azlag still hand-make the M'Gouna dagger, trimmed with silver and copper. It lies on the N10, about 90 km east of Ouarzazate by road, on CTM and Supratours coach routes from Marrakech. A quiet paved road climbs north up the valley, past kasbahs, almond and fig trees, toward Bou Thrarar at the mouth of the M'Goun gorge; the villages are easiest with a car or driver. The Dadès Gorges lie about 41 km north-east and Skoura's Kasbah Amridil about 48 km south-west, as the crow flies.
Damask roses edging the fields in spring.
Floats and a Miss Rose every May.
Hand-made blades trimmed with silver and copper.
On the N10, Dadès valley, Tinghir province
Every May, on dates announced each year: the 60th edition ran from 5 to 8 May 2025 and the 61st from 7 to 10 May 2026. Rooms in and around town fill quickly during the festival, so book early.
Tonnes of them: a 2021 AFP report put it at four to five tonnes of flowers for one kilo of essential oil. In 2025 the head of a women's cooperative in the Dadès, quoted by the Moroccan daily L'Economiste, put the oil at about 160 dirhams a gram.