I can’t even imagine the relief Sahara caravan drivers must have felt upon reaching this place, or another like it. After months crossing the planet’s largest “real” desert (there are larger in the Arctic and Antarctica based on the definition of desert as limited rainfall, but really, do you count those?), to arrive at one of Morocco’s famed Kasbahs, also called Ksars, fortified towns guarding the trade routes that offered shelter, food, and water, and to know that the hardest part of the journey is behind would be incredible. You’d herd your camels through the outer gates – Ibn Battuta wrote that caravans could be as large as 10-12,000 strong – where they could drink to their hearts’ delight, have some food, and sleep indoors for the first time in a long time. The price would be steep, of course, but with your fortune made by safely guiding your caravan through, you’d be happy to pay.

Walking through the gate of Ait Ben Haddou, a ksar that dates to the 11th century (although current buildings are much later), I imagine myself to be just such a trader. Or any number of other characters who would be at home here: archaeologist, gladiator (yep, part was filmed right here), warlord, or just a weary traveler.

I pass shops that occupy the same space the town’s original market was, climbing stairs up the hill the ksar sits on for a panoramic view. It is truly stunning!

At its height, Ait Ben Haddou probably had a couple hundred full time residents, all from a single extended family. Today there are just a few, with most having moved to a more modern village across the river. Each of the larger fortified dwellings would have had one branch of the family, with sons moving out and building new ones as their side enlarged.

Ait Ben Haddou is just one of more than a thousand Kasbahs that dots this side of the Sahara Desert. In fact, a single valley here is said to have a thousand just itself, and is called the Valley of the Thousand Kasbahs. Most are in a state of disrepair at this point in time, with the best fixed up either being those with the most historical significance that are now museums, or those that have been turned into hotels and guest houses.

These have always been very much on the Moroccan frontier. Warlords governed semi-autonomously from the kings and sultans of the more heavily populated part of Morocco on the other side of the High Atlas Mountains, a pass through which would be a caravan’s next step from the Kasbah towns.

And to the south: more than a thousand miles of desert, before one reached the powerful African kingdoms like Mali. Trans-Saharan trade was a major industry, with gold, ivory, and slaves coming north for cloth, salt, and metal goods. Routes were guarded jealously, with locations of invaluable oases knowledge worth killing for.

Guides were highly-paid members of Berber tribes, now called the Amazigh peoples, who have lived in North Africa since before the Arab arrival. (Read more about early Islam in North Africa here.) Having been converted to Islam shortly after the Arab conquest, they in turn were the emissaries of this new religion to sub-Saharan Africa, which also largely converted. This made the trade routes more common, and the cycle continued.

While there are a lot of examples of Berber kingdoms like Numidia and Mauritania, most people associate the Amazigh with nomad life. It is a highly romanticized concept: nomads with goats and camels living in tents in the desert. But today, few are able to live in this way, and most Berber “nomads” live largely stationary lives. They can have permanent stone dwellings, though well constructed tents are more common. They can have cell phones. And while some try to make a living herding goats and sheep as their ancestors once did, climate change has made it harder, with not enough water in the mountains during the summer. So many have turned to tourism, hosting groups for mint tea and to talk about their lives and traditions.

I am lucky and get to have this experience multiple times. And while the basic stories are different, one thing is unanimous: not one wished their children to have this life. It is a powerful reminder that life in the Sahara is not an easy one, no matter what Hollywood portrays.

The Sahara is more than just rolling sand dunes, again despite film portrayals. In fact, the majority, at least here in Morocco, isn’t sand dunes at all. There is just arid rocky land, small hills that hold mineral deposits, and huge expanses of scrub.

But yes, there are sand dunes, and tourists flock to them, especially in Merzouga. Fancy a dune buggy? At least a dozen places have them to rent. Want to ride a camel? Basically every hotel offers it. Sand boarding, sand tubing… you name the form of sand dune based recreation and you can find it here.

Or take a more guided tour in a 4×4. Mine goes both over the dunes (lots of fun) and to a nomad camp, palm oasis, and camel staging area.

The Sahara Desert is expanding. Dunes can migrate feet per year. And climate change is making the arid area grow to the south. Oases are drying. Wells still produce water, especially beneath the dunes, where the water table is highest. Others elsewhere are dry now, sadly.

But life here goes on, both for tourists and for natives who eke out a living with modest agriculture and livestock, or by making mint tea for travelers like me. It is a hard life, one that technology hasn’t made a ton easier. No, camel caravans don’t need to traverse the Sahara, hoping to reach the walls of Ait Ben Haddou. But the rest seems almost unchanged at times.

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