Hairpin views
The road coiling up the slopes.
Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ingo Mehling — CC BY-SA 4.0 · dewet from London, United Kingdom — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Demonius42 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K — CC BY 2.0
Tizi n'Tichka carries the N9, the main road from Marrakech to Ouarzazate and the Sahara, over the High Atlas. At about 2,200 metres it is the road's highest point and the boundary between the Marrakech-Safi and Drâa-Tafilalet regions. Tizi is Tamazight for a mountain pass; the name usually translates as pass of the pastures. The French built the motor road along an old caravan trail from the mid-1920s, completing it in the 1930s, most often dated 1936. It bypassed the route to the Drâa via Telouet and the Ounila valley, which the Glaoui had controlled since the nineteenth century. A lion shot here in 1942 is often called the last wild Barbary lion, but a 2013 study estimates lions lasted until about 1948 in Morocco and 1958 in Algeria. The top looks over bare ridges and the hairpins of the climb. The Marrakech side is greener, with oak and walnut groves lower down, while the south turns dry and stony towards the pre-Saharan valleys. Shops and cafés at the summit sell rock crystal, fossils, pottery, carpets and Amazigh jewellery, and roadside sellers offer geodes, some dyed vivid red. The pass lies 104 km by road from Marrakech, about two hours' drive, and about 90 km from Ouarzazate; most travellers cross it heading for Aït Benhaddou, the Dadès Gorges and the desert. About 4 km south of the top, a side road leads east about 19 km to the Kasbah of Telouet, then down the Ounila valley to Aït Benhaddou. Heavy snow can temporarily close the pass between November and March.
The road coiling up the slopes.
Fossils, minerals and cafés.
A side road to the Glaoui kasbah.
Summit of the N9 Marrakech-Ouarzazate road, Ouarzazate province
Usually, but heavy snow between November and March can close it until the road is cleared, mostly for a few hours and rarely for days. The paved road suits an ordinary car but winds a lot and carries lorries and buses, so drive with care, and in winter check the forecast and cross in daylight.
The sign at the top says 2,260 metres, the figure most guides repeat, but elevation models put the road's highest point at about 2,205 metres.