Painted Rocks of Tafraout

In 1984 the Belgian artist Jean Vérame, with a crew and a quantity of industrial paint, coloured a field of granite boulders in the country south-west of Tafraout - mostly a strong blue with some red, purple and white - as a piece of land art, with official permission. Forty years of sun and wind have faded most of it and local people have repainted parts to keep it going, so what is there now is a mixture of original, weathered and refreshed colour on rounded granite in an otherwise bare landscape. Opinion divides sharply. Some visitors find it a striking intervention and photograph it endlessly; others think painting a natural rock formation blue was an odd thing to be allowed to do and that the fading has made it look like an abandoned industrial site. Both readings are defensible. It is a short drive or a long walk from Tafraout and takes two hours.

What you'll find

• Painted granite - blue with red and purple on rounded boulders in bare country.
• A 1984 intervention - made by a Belgian artist with permission and a crew.
• Fading and repainting - forty years of weather with local touch-ups over it.
• A divided reaction - striking to some, a mistake to others, and both hold up.

When to go

February for almond blossom in the same valleys; October to April otherwise. Two hours.

Good to know

The paint is faded and patchy - photographs online are usually old or edited. The track needs care in a low car. There is no facility of any kind. Whether it improves the landscape is genuinely contested.

Nearby

Tafraout and Napoleon's Hat are north-east; Ait Mansour gorge is south.