14-Day Jewish Legacy Tour of Morocco with Sahara and Imperial Cities

• Depending on your time of arrival, you will be driven to your hotel or riad to relax and rest. If time allows, you might like to explore some of Casablanca's sights, including the architectural masterpiece of Hassan II Mosque. Completed in the 1990s, it overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and has a retractable roof that lets in sunlight. It is also one of the few mosques that Jews are accorded the rare opportunity to enter.

• Enjoy your first day of pilgrimage through the Jewish legacy of Morocco. Casablanca is a good place to begin a grounding pilgrimage tour of this heritage. One of your most vivid memories will likely be your visit to Beth El and Eim Habanim synagogues, which are not the only synagogues in Casablanca.
• Continue to the only Jewish museum in the Islamic world, the Moroccan Judaism Museum, where you'll discover Jewish-Berber costumes and jewellery. Within its walls, you will find 2,000 years of history reflected in art, ornate clothing, religious relics and artifacts, as well as a photo and video library and rooms with partial reproductions of synagogues. Before its renovation, this place once served as a Jewish orphanage.
• Discover Neve Shalom, the last Moroccan Jewish day school, as well as Casablanca's Jewish Mellah and Jewish Cemetery.
• You can have lunch in one of the many kosher restaurants, and later in the afternoon, you might like to have a drink at the Tahiti Beach Club, which was once a local Jewish hangout.

• Explore Jimi Hendrix's town. Before getting there, stop in Azemmour, the charming former Portuguese fortified town on the great Oum Er-Rabia River, 75 km from Casablanca. During the 15th century, its white clifftop historic old town was once home to 2,500 Jewish residents. Here, you'll discover historic sites, riads, and shrines, and experience a different pace of life.
• In the afternoon, once in Essaouira, you are free to roam the city, which once was, and still remains, a haven for hippie backpackers and Gnawa musicians. You can begin your visit at the ramparts, a series of forts built in the 15th century around the Medina of Mogador. Inside the medina, you'll have the chance to visit the Mellah, where two-thirds of the population settled in the 19th century, as well as Bayt Dakira, a spiritual and heritage space that seeks to preserve and enhance Judeo-Moroccan memory. Each September, more than 2,000 Jews from all over the world gather at the grave of Rabbi Chaim Pinto in the 16th-century Jewish cemetery. He was well known for his ability to perform miracles.
• Have a delicious fish meal at Essaouira's port, Morocco's third fishing port. For sports-oriented travellers, Essaouira is also home to some fine windsurfing and kitesurfing schools.

• If you did not get to explore the sights of Essaouira the day before, you will be able to do so this morning before leaving east for Marrakech. It is highly recommended to walk through the narrow alleyways of Essaouira, where you will notice painted houses that still have the Star of David above the doorways of Jewish homes. Even at its boat-lined port, look up at the symbols carved into the harbour gate: a Jewish star rests inside a scallop shell often associated with Christian pilgrims, next to Islam's symbolic crescent moon. Although the number of permanent Jewish residents has dwindled, their marks have not faded.
• Leave Essaouira after lunch and continue to Marrakech for an overnight stay.

• You will have the whole day to continue your Morocco Jewish legacy cultural tour with your private guided visit, as in the other cities. You will be able to explore the famed Jamaa El Fnaa square and highly recommended sites such as the newly opened Yves Saint Laurent Museum, the enchanting Majorelle Garden, the Berber Museum, and the famous square itself, where the crazed cacophony of musicians, snake charmers, and storytellers fills the air.
• Visit the narrow alleyways of the nearby Mellah, which is well worth a walk. Jewish stars punctuate the doorposts leading to the tiny blue-and-white Lazama Synagogue, built by Jews escaping from Spain in 1492 and recently opened to the public. Lazama has an interior courtyard and displays photographs and artifacts of Moroccan Jews. The tour also includes the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia and El Badi Palaces.

• Around 8:00 am, your driver and tour guide will pick you up from the nearest point to your hotel or riad. Through the Tizi N'Tichka Pass (2,260 m) in the High Atlas Mountains, you will enjoy a snaking, winding road, beautiful landscapes, and differently coloured Berber villages along the way. If you get car sick, be sure to bring your medication.
• Stop in Ait Barka village at around 10:00 am to take beautiful pictures and enjoy a cup of mint tea. It is the point where the highest Atlas Mountains of Morocco begin.
• Your second pause will be at the top of Tizi n'Tichka before arriving at Aït Benhaddou, the 11th-century UNESCO-protected red mud-brick ksar that has formed the backdrop for many Hollywood productions, including Lawrence of Arabia, Jesus of Nazareth, Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and many others. Here, you will also have time to explore the history of this amazing heritage site.
• Have lunch before continuing via Ouarzazate, the Hollywood studio, and Taourirt Kasbah.
• Traverse the Valley of Roses and continue straight to Dadès Gorges, where rust-red and mauve mountains rise dramatically. A series of crumbling kasbahs and ksours line the valley in Berber villages all the way to the Monkey Fingers Mountains.

• This morning, you head southeast towards Merzouga, the gateway to the golden dunes of the Sahara Desert. Before getting there, you will find yourself hugged between gigantic rock walls, where the sublime experience of Todgha Gorges awaits.
• Then continue to Tinjdad, where a local Berber culture museum is worth a lunch stop. Later, after lunch, head to Erfoud, where you can marvel at the million-year-old fossils for which the area is famous.
• Continue on to Merzouga, home to the highest dunes in Morocco. You can store any main luggage here while packing an overnight bag to bring along.
• You will have the chance to ride your camel into the sandy seas. After an hour-long camel ride, you will be among the lucky few to watch the sunset over the Sahara dunes.

Your stay for the night will be in a Bedouin-style tent.

• This morning, you will wake up with the sun shining on your face to witness what we hope will be a glorious sunrise among the dunes. Watch the light creep slowly down the sand and draw everyone out from the warmth of their heavy blankets for an early breakfast.
• After an hour-long camel ride out of the desert, you will depart and head for Ifrane through the Ziz Valley, one of the largest date-producing oasis regions in Morocco. En route, we will stop for lunch with a local family in Midelt.
• Savour lunch and continue through the cedar forests of Ifrane, the Switzerland of Morocco. If you are lucky, you may come across Barbary macaques on the way to Fes, where you can prepare for tomorrow's amazing tour through the mysteries and secrets of the 9,000 alleyways that make the city a maze. Do not panic - the guide will show you the must-see sites.

• With your private Fes-born-and-bred guide, you will have the opportunity to discover the ancient breeding ground for scholars and artisans and the largest medina in the world. You will see the America Fondouk, Nejjarines, the tanneries, and Karaouine, the most ancient university in the world.
• Your guide will shed light on many tales and on the history of this UNESCO-protected medina. For Jewish travellers, it is highly recommended to explore the winding streets of Morocco's oldest Mellah, dating to 1438, with its Spanish-inspired Jewish balconies and outward-facing windows. The Jewish quarter also has 17th-century synagogues, including Slat Al Fassiyine.
• In addition, visit the Aben Danan Synagogue, which has unique features, and Beit Hachaim, the most famous resting place for rabbis and local Jews.

• Visit the lesser-visited imperial city of Meknes. Today, you will have the chance to see the famed Bab El Mansour gate, Dar Jamai Palace and Museum, the royal stables, Hedim Square, and Moulay Ismail's tomb.
• Walk through the narrow lanes of the Mellah, where Jewish families once lived, and visit the Jewish Zawiya, where the grave of Rabbi David Benmidan is located. About a 30-minute drive from Meknes, one of the earliest signs of Jewish existence is still resisting the passage of time at Volubilis, a remarkable and fascinating archaeological site. Among the former Roman ruins, intricate mosaics, standing columns, and building facades, excavators found a tombstone with Hebrew inscriptions dating back to the second century.

• Say goodbye to the city of Sophism and drive south of Fes towards Sefrou, the "little Jerusalem," as it is known because of its high percentage of Jews. It was once a meeting point for traders from around the world. The town hosted Jewish settlers within its walls from the 13th century onward. Upon Morocco's independence, Little Jerusalem's Mellah made up half of the old city. If you want to discover more of the Mellah, you might like to cross Aggie's River and walk through alleyways to reach a large school, the synagogue, and a cemetery holding the tombs of important saints, merchants, and flood victims. When you finish your visit to the medina, we will leave Fes and enjoy delicious local food in Lalla Fatiha's house.
• In the afternoon, your driver and guide will take you towards the blue city, where you are going to spend the night and visit it tomorrow morning.

• After travelling through coastal towns to the south and reaching the north, you will spend this morning in Chaouen before leaving for Rabat. Chefchaouen, Chaouen, or the Blue City as it is known internationally, was a refuge for Muslims and Jews escaping the Spanish Reconquista. The Jewish presence remains evident in the vivid blue-washed walls of each house and corner of the city. The blue colour covering the walls is linked to a Jewish tradition of weaving prayer shawls with tekhelel, an ancient natural blue dye representing the sky, the sea, and God's inescapable presence.
• In addition to this, enjoy roaming freely through the city.
• After lunch, head to the capital of Morocco, Rabat.

• In every inch of Morocco, you can catch glimpses of the footprints of Morocco's once vibrant Jewish life.
• In Rabat, you will have a free day to explore the city, beginning with the monumental Hassan Tower, with the pillared stumps of its mosque all that remain after the earthquake of 1755. Nearby, you can also visit the Mausoleum of the royal family.
• Do not miss walking through the passageways of the medina and Mellah, and having a cup of mint tea in red Oudayas, a walled village within a city.

• Your pilgrimage through the Jewish legacy and reconnection with your roots comes to an end today, and we sincerely hope you leave refreshed and that you have enjoyed your Morocco Jewish Legacy Cultural Tour with us.