Atlas Studios, Ouarzazate, Morocco
The town of Ouarzazate is a famous film-making location, the city of cinema in Africa since the 30’s and is the base of Atlas Film Studios. It is a place where Hollywood movies are made 🎥 and a home to UNESCO world heritage casbah of Ait Benhaddou. If you are a fan of moving pictures like I am, then Atlas Film Studio is a must to visit place in Ouarzazate. It is popular for a big Hollywood blockbusters that have been filmed here. The first films shot on the territory of Ouarzazate are well before the Second World War. Best Picture Oscar and one of seven Academy Awards, Lawrence of Arabia, was filmed here in 1962. It is during this same period that the region of Ouarzazate became very popular among filmmakers. An entrepreneur named Mohamed Belghmi officially founded this movie studio called Atlas Studios in 1983 and reached out to Hollywood offering his services.The ethnic and landscape diversity, the exceptional light and a local workforce available, transformed the city in one of the most popular places for film-makers.
After Hollywood became involved in shooting their blockbusters abroad the Atlas Studios became the largest studio in the world. When one film is finished production, the set is left behind and a new plot of land is used to build the next one. The stage that was initially set for Jesus of Nazareth was reused multiple times for the other highly popular movies such as Ridley Scott’s movie Gladiator, Cleopatra, parts of The Living Daylights, scenes in Game of Thrones, Babel, The Passion of the Christ, Kingdom of Heaven, Prince of Persia. The photo I have above is a filming stage of Egyptian theme and a film set for the French film Asterix and Obelisk: Mission Cleopatra. However, the famous title today is Game of thrones. Long before John Snow was killed! The producer of GOT chose Atlas Studio, Ait Ben Haddou, and Fint Oasis to film some Mothers of Dragons’ scenes.
Besides Egyptian theme complexes you will also see Tibetan theme temple, appearing authentic from both the inside and out. This was one of the main stages for Kundun, the 1997 film directed by Martin Scorsese.
Kundun film set, Ouarzazate
My favorite stage was Egyptian set for Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, check it out in a short video below!
How To Get To Atlas Studios
Atlas studios is about 5km out of Ouarzazate on the road to Marrakech which is about 3.5 hours drive. Therefore this option is great if you travel with a family and have a car that you can make your own schedule when to drive there and where to take scenic routes and stops .
The most convenient and safe option is to sign up for a guided tour. There are different options, tours from Marrakech you can check out here and tours Fez-Merzouga- Ouarzazate - Marrakech here. I prefer guided tours when I travel on my own for my safety and convenience of not having to deal of planning and organizing it all myself but prefer to rent a car when I travel with my friends or family.
At the end the last option is to take a bus to Ouarzazate. There is a direct bus departing from Marrakech and arriving at Ouarzazate. Services depart three times a day, and operate daily. Here I found Rome2rio website with bus schedule but there are other platforms to choose from as well. When you manage to get to Ouarzazate it is possible to walk to Atlas Studios from the city and will take about an hour.
Best places to stay at Ouarzazate
Beautiful Oscar hotel would be my #1 choice for many reasons. First reason is that it is a hotel by Atlas Studio and is located next to the Atlas Studios ( 5 minutes walk). Second reason is that famous producers and actors stay here during movie shoot and all the design and architecture of hotel shows it off. You will have amazing videos filming the walls of hotel painted with actors and producers faces and reading wallpapers with history of filmmaking done in Ouarzazate. Swimming pool of the hotel have the design attributes of filming sets such as production lighting and soft light props that embedded in design to produce shade for patio chairs.
Hotel is located in a close proximity to the Atlas Studios and Ait Ben Haddou which will save you time for commute. There is a beautiful swimming pool which is amazing because after all day of touristic activities you will want to just relax in hotel by the pool having snacks. We did not stayed here but we stopped by to check it out because it was on the way and had an amazing lunch by the pool. Lunch was actually much better than the one we were having at Oscar Hotel. Therefore food wise we loved it here more and swimming pool was way nicer and bigger.
During the tour at Atlas Studios besides the film sets that you will see with a tour guide that are resembling Egypt and Tibet motifs the guide will likely also show us the set that Hermes built for the shoot of their watch commercial. You can check my video below that I pulled from my TikTok account to see how the commercial came out and how the shooting studio in Atlas looks like, it’s pretty awesome watch!
Hermes watch commercial film set in Ouarzazate, Morocco
Over the years, Ouarzazate has served as a shooting location for Alexander the Great, Black Hawk Down, Game of Thrones, Asterix and Obelix mission Cleopatra, Hermes watch commercial, Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom, Babel, The Mummy, Star Wars (1977), The Living Daylights, Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, Gladiator, Body of Lies (2008), Prometheus, Prison Break, The Hills have Eyes and many more.
The Hills Have Eyes
A little bonus for visitors of Ouarzazate and Atlas Studios! On the way out of the city there are two locations you can check out that are the filming sites for 2 very famous movies: Babel and The Hills Have Eyes. Short disclamer i didn’t like the filming shot of Babel that much, it was filmed in Taguenzalt village and there aren’t much to see, as you recall from the movie it’s mostly landscape and hills of a very poor neighborhood where the events unfold. And that’s exactly what you will see at that filming site. But you know I might not have liked it much but you might enjoy it therefore I am mentioning it here. Another site I really liked and it is a famous Gas Station from the Hills Have Eyes where the film’s protagonists are advised to take a gory, gruesome “shortcut.”. It it located on the way out of Ourzazate. You can find it on the Google Maps on the Av. Mohammed V road out of the city by searching Gaz Haven “The hills have eyes 2” and just follow the directions but don’t take any short cuts haha!
Gas Heaven, Ouarzazate
Planning a trip to Morocco? I highly recommend Lonely Planet travel guide below. I buy Lonely Planet guides to every country I visit and build my trip based on their suggestions.
I wish you a happy journey and a bunch of joyful memories!
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