13-day Geological tour from Marrakech around Morocco

13-day Geological Tours in Morocco: Explore the best of Morocco

Travel by 4×4 car  across eastern Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert (geo tours in Morocco), where the rocks are rich in minerals and fossils. Morocco is one of the most geologically diverse countries on the planet, with vast regions of exposed rock rich in fossils and minerals dating from the pre-Cambrian to the Recent. The Atlas Mountains dominate the country on the west, dropping down to a coastal plain on the east, and the Sahara Desert on the west. Trilobites fossils.  Eastern Morocco is home to ammonites and other prehistoric species, including dinosaur, coral, and shark teeth. Paleontologists  have made tremendous advances in the excavation of the geological record.

DAY 1 :ARRIVAL TO MARRAKECH AIRPORT TRANSFER TO HOTEL.

Geo tours in Morocco depend on your arrival time!!!!

DAY 2 :MARRAKECH-AIT BEN HADDOU/OUARZAZATE

Start your journey from Marrakech and head to Sidi Rahal, the first stop on your Morocco geo tour. This site is rich in quartz chalcedonies, amethyst, and agate. Enjoy a lunch with a local miner while exploring the High Atlas mountains. Later, we’ll stay overnight at a hotel in Ait Ben Haddou.

DAY 3 : AIT BEN HADDOU/OUARZAZATE-ALNIF

.After breakfast, you will visit the Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah. Next, head to the Stromatolite site before enjoying a scenic drive through the Draa Valley on your way to Serradrar. There, you can explore the Silurian site and collect black Orthoceras fossils. In the evening, you’ll stay at your  hotel in Alnif.

DAY 4 :ALNIF-ALNIF

After breakfast, leave Alnif to visit the Cambrian site, known for its large yellow trilobites. Enjoy a picnic in the oasis before heading to the Ordovician site at Jbel Tiskaouine, where you can find calymenes and flexycalymenes fossils. Return to the same hotel in the evening.

DAY 5 :ALNIF-MHARCH

Start your day with breakfast, then head to Isoumour, a famous site for its remarkable Devonian trilobites, where all species once coexisted. Collect rolled phacops and enjoy a picnic on-site. Next, visit the Atchana site, another Devonian area, but located on flat terrain instead of a mountain. Later, collect red ammonites in Lakrabis. Spend the evening in M’harch, a beautiful oasis in the desert.

DAY 6 :MHARCH-MERZOUGA

After breakfast, depart for Mecessi to explore and collect Devonian trilobites. Then, visit Jbel Mdawar to gather Devonian goniatites and enjoy a picnic on-site. Continue your journey to the stunning sand dunes of Merzouga Erg Chebbi. Spend the evening at a charming, modest hotel in Merzouga.

DAY 7 :MERZOUGA-MERZOUGA

After breakfast, head to Taouz to visit the famous Kemkem site, known for its abundance of fish, crocodile, and spinosaurus bones and teeth. Enjoy a picnic at the old Filon 12 mine, renowned for its vanadinites, quartz, and goethite. Finally, return to Merzouga, passing through the old Mifis mine along the way.

DAY 8 : MERZOUGA-MERZOUGA

After your morning meal, depart Merzouga for the Azourz site, where you can collect black Devonian pyritized goniatites. Then, visit the Tisket site to gather trilobites. Enjoy a picnic in the sacred oasis before visiting a working baryte mine. In the afternoon, collect sand flowers made of gypsum and sand, along with bits of bones and vertebrae. Finally, return to your hotel in Merzouga.

DAY 9 : MERZOUGA-ERFOUD

Visit the famous Devonian formation of Hamarlaghdad, known for its rich collection of corals, bivalves, brachiopods, speripheres, and trilobites. Then, head to Jbel Boutchrafine to collect rolled trilobites. Enjoy a picnic on-site before seeing the crinoid extraction site. Afterward, travel to Erfoud to visit the factory where large blocks are cut and turned into table tops, sinks, bookends, and ornamental objects. Spend the evening in Erfoud city.

DAY 10 : ERFOUD-MIDELT

After checking out of the hotel, drive through the green valley and cross the High Atlas. Stop at the Ziz Gorges, then continue your journey. In the afternoon, visit the selenite factory. Spend the evening at the Meteorite Hotel.

DAY 11 : MIDELT-MIDELT

Departure to visit Mibladen old mine riche in cerusite barythe, and vanadinite even hard to find very deep and dangerous digging. Visit Ahouli old mine village, we will have picnic there, then go to collect azurite and malachite at Sidi Ayad. Evening back to Midelt same hotel meteorite
hotel.

DAY 12 : MIDELT-OUED ZEM-OUZOUD

The way back Midelt to Marrakech. Stop moyen atlas mountains to to take nice pictures of forest , after we drive to phosphate area which rich in different fish fossils (Enchodus teeth, shark teeth and fish vertebrates), mosasaur, blisasaur….night in Ouzoud.

DAY 13 : OUARZAZATE-MARRAKECH

Drive back to Marrakech, stopping to visit the dinosaur footprints in Azilal and the natural bridge in Demnate. In the morning, visit the Ouzoud Falls before continuing your journey back to Marrakech