Tiout Oasis

Tiout is a palmeraie of a few thousand hectares on the southern side of the Souss valley, watered from the hills behind, with a kasbah on a rock spur above it that gives the view over the whole grove and the plain beyond. The gardens below are worked in the usual layered way - dates above, olives, figs and pomegranate below, vegetables and fodder underneath - and are crossed by irrigation channels and mud-walled paths. The kasbah, part ruin and part restored, was used as a location for Jacques Becker's Ali Baba et les Quarante Voleurs in 1954, with Fernandel, which is the fact the village leads with and which brought it a small trickle of visitors it has kept ever since. Donkey rides through the palms are the standard offer. Taroudant, with its complete circuit of earth walls, is forty kilometres west and most people come from there.

What you actually see

• A hilltop kasbah - part ruined, part restored, above the whole palmeraie.
• Layered gardens - dates over fruit over vegetables on channel irrigation.
• The 1954 film location - where Ali Baba was shot with Fernandel.
• Mud-walled paths - lanes through the grove, walked or ridden by donkey.

When to go

October to April; the Souss is very hot in summer. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The kasbah is partly ruined and access is informal. Guides and donkey handlers at the entrance are persistent - agree prices first. It is a short visit from Taroudant rather than a destination. Summer heat is severe.

Nearby

Taroudant and its walls are west; Taliouine and the saffron country are east.