Morocco Film Locations: Where The Odyssey, Gladiator and Game of Thrones Were Shot

The short version

Most of the films people ask about were shot along one road: south from Marrakech over the High Atlas to Aït Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate, then east towards the dunes at Merzouga. Essaouira, on the Atlantic coast, is the one big exception. You can stand in almost every location below on a desert tour from Marrakech, plus a day at the coast.

Aït Ben Haddou: Troy, Yunkai and the gladiator arena

The earthen ksar of Aït Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, is often called the most-filmed location in Africa, and the credits back it up: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Jewel of the Nile (1985), The Living Daylights (1987), Kundun (1997), The Mummy (1999), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Babel (2006) and Prince of Persia (2010) all shot here.

Three of them are the reason most people come:

• Gladiator (2000). Maximus is sold into slavery here and fights his first bouts in the provincial arena, which the production built onto the existing village.
• Game of Thrones. In season 3 the ksar became Yunkai, the Yellow City of Slaver's Bay.
• The Odyssey (2026). Christopher Nolan used the ksar as the real skyline of Troy, adding around sixty temporary structures across about a hectare to film the city's fall.

Cross the river and climb to the granary at the top, and you are looking down on the same rooftops the cameras framed. Our Aït Ben Haddou guide covers the visit itself.

Ouarzazate: Atlas Studios and the Jerusalem set

Half an hour further on, Ouarzazate is where the crews sleep and the sets are built. Atlas Studios, founded in 1983 by Mohamed Belghmi, is described as the largest film studio in the world by land area. Its guided tours walk you through standing sets from productions including *Gladiator*, *Kingdom of Heaven*, *The Mummy*, *Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra*, *Babel* and *Prison Break*. Entry is about €7. CLA Studios, opened in 2004, is the town's second studio.

On the N9 road, just north of Atlas Studios, stands the Jerusalem that Ridley Scott built for *Kingdom of Heaven*. Scott came back for Gladiator II (2024): its opening scenes, set in "Africa Nova", were filmed around Ouarzazate, and the coastal town of Numidia that the Roman fleet attacks reuses that same Jerusalem set.

This is why the town is nicknamed "Ouallywood". There is more on it in our Ouarzazate guide.

Gara Medouar: The Mummy and Spectre

Near Erfoud, on the road to the Merzouga dunes, stands a horseshoe-shaped rock formation called Gara Medouar. The production of The Mummy built its entire set of Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, there. Sixteen years later it became the villain's crater base in the Bond film Spectre, filmed in June 2015, and blowing it up earned a Guinness World Record for the largest film stunt explosion.

Gara Medouar lies off the main road, about 20 km from Erfoud. On a private tour it is a detour you can ask for on the way to the dunes.

Essaouira: Astapor and the Trojan Horse

On the Atlantic, the fortified port of Essaouira (UNESCO, 2001) played Astapor in season 3 of *Game of Thrones*, the city where Daenerys buys the Unsullied. The scenes were filmed on the Skala, the cannon-lined sea wall, which you can walk for free.

Nolan came here too. In *The Odyssey*, the beach where the Trojans find the wooden horse and take it back to the city is at Essaouira. And long before either, Orson Welles filmed much of his Othello (1952) in the town.

Our shared Essaouira day trip from Marrakech costs €30 per person. From the south coast, the Agadir to Essaouira day trip reaches the same ramparts.

Marrakech and Tahanaout

The film tour starts before you leave the city. *The Mummy* began shooting in Marrakech in May 1998, with the city standing in for 1920s Cairo, and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) plays out in and around the Jemaa el-Fna. About 30 km south, on the road to Imlil and the High Atlas, the market town of Tahanaout stood in for parts of Troy in *The Odyssey*.

How to see them on one trip

• For film lovers, the 4-day desert tour is the one to pick. Day one stops for a full visit of Aït Ben Haddou, then lunch in Ouarzazate with the option of Atlas Studios, and the route comes back through both on the last day. From €446 per person for two, €236 each for six.
• The private 3-day Sahara tour stops at Aït Ben Haddou on day one, passes Erfoud on day two and returns through Ouarzazate. From €380 per person for two, €230 each for six. Ask for the Gara Medouar detour when you book.
• On a budget, the shared 3-day Merzouga tour stops at Aït Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate for €120 per person. For the studio tour and the Gara Medouar detour, choose one of the private versions.

For the wider story of Morocco's heritage sites on screen, see Morocco's UNESCO sites where the movies were filmed.

👉 See the 4-day desert tour: Aït Ben Haddou, Atlas Studios and the Sahara, with a driver-guide who knows which scene was shot where.