Aouli Gorges

The Moulouya cuts a gorge through dark rock north-east of Midelt, and the road follows it - a narrow strip between the river and the walls with tunnels cut through spurs. Halfway along is Aouli, a village built for a lead and silver mine that worked from the early twentieth century and closed in the 1970s: housing blocks, a processing plant, offices and a small church stand on ledges and terraces up the cliffs, roofless, with the walls painted and the window frames gone, and a few families still living among them. It is one of the more striking industrial ruins in Morocco and it is entirely unmanaged - you walk into buildings at your own risk, and the ground around the old workings carries mine waste. The gorge itself continues past the village with good rock, pools and almost no traffic, and the drive back at the end of the day is when the light is best.

What you actually see

• A cliff-built mining village - housing, plant and a church on ledges, roofless since the 1970s.
• A river gorge road - narrow, with tunnels cut through the rock spurs.
• Unmanaged ruins - buildings open and unstable, entered at your own risk.
• Mine waste - spoil from the old lead and silver workings around the site.

When to go

Spring and autumn. Half a day. Late afternoon for the light in the gorge.

Honest expectations

The buildings are unstable and there is no supervision - people have been hurt in similar places. Mine spoil around the workings is not something to dig through or handle. A few families still live there; ask before photographing them or their homes. The road is narrow with rockfall.

Nearby

Midelt is south-west; the Cirque de Jaffar is beyond it.