Meknes and the Middle Atlas: Ifrane the Alpine Town, Azrou Cedar Forest, the Barbary Macaques, the Beni M'guild Berber Community, and Middle Atlas Trekking
The Meknes Middle Atlas route covers Ifrane as the most Swiss-looking single Moroccan town, the Azrou cedar forest with the Barbary macaque colony, the Beni M'guild Berber community as the most artistically productive single Middle Atlas Berber group, and the Middle Atlas mountain trekking from the Meknes base.
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Ifrane: The Swiss Village of Morocco
Ifrane, 60 kilometers south of Meknes at 1650 meters altitude in the Middle Atlas, is the most architecturally anomalous single Moroccan city with the French Protectorate-era chalet architecture, the flower gardens, the clean streets, the private Al-Akhawayn University (the most internationally accredited single Moroccan university), and the stone lion sculpture that is the most photographed single object in the Ifrane town center. The Ifrane skiing at Michlifen (10 kilometers south) is the most accessible single Moroccan ski resort and the resort that most directly challenges the non-Moroccan assumption that Morocco lacks a winter sports culture.
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Azrou Cedar Forest: The Barbary Macaque Habitat
The Azrou cedar forest (Cedrus atlantica, the Atlas cedar) south of Azrou village 75 kilometers from Meknes is the most extensively forested single Middle Atlas cedar landscape in Morocco and the most reliably accessible single habitat of the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), the only African macaque species north of the Sahara and the species from which the Gibraltar macaque population descends. The Azrou cedar forest Barbary macaques, habituated to the food offerings of the tourist visitors (the forest rangers now discourage feeding to maintain the most natural single macaque behavior), are the most approachable single wild primate population in Africa.
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Beni M'guild: The Middle Atlas Carpet Weavers
The Beni M'guild Berber community of the Middle Atlas plateau between Meknes and Midelt is the most artistically important single Berber weaving community in Morocco with the most recognizable single carpet type in the Moroccan textile tradition: the dark red (or red-black) ground carpet with the cream geometric diamond and star patterns and the deepest single knotted pile of any Moroccan carpet. The Beni M'guild carpet is the most highly valued single Berber carpet in the Moroccan interior design market and the carpet most frequently exported to the European luxury interior market as the most tactilely distinctive single Moroccan floor textile.
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Ain Leuh: The Middle Atlas Waterfall Village
Ain Leuh village, 44 kilometers south of Azrou, is the most attractively situated single Middle Atlas village with the seasonal waterfall (the Oum er-Rbia source, one of the largest single river source springs in Morocco), the cedar forest backdrop, and the village market providing the most completely rural single Middle Atlas day-trip experience accessible from the Meknes base. The Oum er-Rbia (Mother of Spring) river source at Ain Leuh generates the most powerful single mountain spring discharge in Morocco and flows west to the Atlantic coast as the most agriculturally significant single river in the central Morocco plain.
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Khénifra: The Middle Atlas Berber Heartland
Khenifra, 90 kilometers south of Meknes in the Oum er-Rbia valley, is the most historically significant single Middle Atlas Berber resistance town where Mouha ou Hammou Zayani led the most prolonged single Berber resistance to the French Protectorate from 1914 to 1921 and the Battle of El Herri (1914) represents the most militarily significant single Berber defeat of French forces in Morocco. The Khenifra Ait Sghougho carpet (the most locally specific single carpet type in the Khenifra region) and the Wednesday souk (the most active single rural market in the Khenifra province) are the most culturally authentic single Khenifra visitor experiences.
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Middle Atlas Trekking: The Cedar and Snow Landscape
The Middle Atlas trekking circuit from the Meknes-Ifrane-Azrou triangle, the most accessible single mountain trekking base in Morocco for the Casablanca or the Fes day-trip visitor, offers the most complete single cedar forest and mountain meadow landscape in Morocco with the Jbel Hebri (2104 meters, the most accessible single Middle Atlas summit hike from Ifrane) providing the most panoramically complete single Middle Atlas summit view. The spring trekking (April-May, the most wildflower-abundant single Middle Atlas season) and the autumn trekking (September-October, the cedar forest in the most golden single autumn light) are the most recommended single Middle Atlas trekking windows from the Meknes base.