GeoWorld Travel Morocco Fossil Tour Geology Trip and Holiday

Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrival in Marrakech and transfer from the airport to our hotel. This historic city is a World Heritage Site and has excellent low-cost airline links to Europe.

Day 2 - Crossing the High Atlas Mountains, and Kasbah Ait-Ben-Haddou World Heritage Site.  The tour starts by leaving the historic city of Marrakech and heading to the High Atlas Mountains. Our first stop is the Sidi Rahal agate mine which lies very close to the North Atlas Fault. The fault separates the flat plain (which Marrakech lies upon) from the High Atlas Mountains which abruptly ascend south of the fault. The agate mine is in Triassic lava that erupted as the North Atlantic began to rift open and here we can find our own agates with a pink outer layer of opal, as well as having the opportunity of buying prize specimens from the local miners. We then start to ascend the mountains, stopping near the village of Zerkten to see a major transform fault. The next stop is at a restaurant for lunch. A short distance further on we stop for panoramic views and to see Ediacaran rocks thrusting over Cambrian rocks. This is followed by the Col du Tichka which, at 2,260m above sea level, is the highest point on the road. Here a double unconformity can be seen: Ordovician rocks lie unconformably over Middle Cambrian rock, which in turn lies unconformably over Ediacaran aged rocks. A short distance from this stop, a recent road-cut beautifully reveals a fault from the  South Atlas fault zone. After this stop, our route leaves the main road and travels along the beautiful Telouet Valley to reach the Telouet salt mine. The mine exploits salt deposits that lie on the Triassic/Jurassic boundary and were deposited during the initial rifting of the North Atlantic. The mine is very old and it lies on the original Marrakech-Timbuktu camel caravan route. In the 11th century its salt was worth more than its weight in gold! Our route then passes through Cretaceous and Palaeogene rocks in the Ounila Valley where we stop to view an impressive fold. Our final stop of the day is for a panoramic view of the Ait-Ben-Haddou World Heritage Site. The kasbah (fortified settlement) was founded in the seventeenth century and has been used as a film set for several movies. The night is spent in a comfortable hotel just outside the city of Ouarzazate.

Day 3 - Precambrian Stromatolites in the Anti Atlas Mountains, and the Fezouata Shale Lagerstätte.  This morning, we start our day by visiting an incredible palaeontological site, a large area covered by Ediacaran aged (600-million-year-old) stromatolites. We then stop at the Tizi-n-Tinififft Pass, which is the highest point on the road crossing the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Here, we can see the Lower Cambrian aged sedimentary rocks and the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary, before descending to the town of Agdz for a coffee break and scenic views. After Agdz the route winds through the date palms of the Draa Valley to reach a site famous for its giant cold-water trilobites; these were alive when Morocco was near to the South Pole. These trilobites are Ordovician (Tremadocian) in age and are in the lower part of the famous Fezouata Shale. The trilobites that were mined, and continue to be mined, from this site can be up to 20-30 cm long! Our final stop of the day is at the Ben Moula diggings in the Fezouata Shale Lagerstätte. Here, exceptional preservation has revealed soft-bodied “Burgess Shale” type fauna such as   Anomalocaridids and marrellomorphs. The Lagerstätte was discovered by the Ben Moula family during the winter of 1999-2000 and featured on the front cover of Nature in 2010. At the diggings we are hosted by Lahcen Ben Moula. We spend the night in the nearby town of Zagora.

Day 4 – Saredrar Orthoceras quarry, a trilobite workshop and a mountain full of Ordovician trilobites. Our first stop today is the Saredrar Orthoceras quarry which is not far from Tazzarine. Rocks and fossils from this quarry are fashioned into all sorts of beautiful objects such as basins, table tops, bowls and plates and can be found for sale in fossil shops around the world. Orthoceras are cephalopods with straight shells, that are thought to be the ancestors of ammonites, from the Ordovician until the Triassic. The Orthoceras at Saredrar are Silurian (Ludlow) in age. Our next stop, near the town of Alnif, is the fossil gallery and shop of Lahcen Ben Moula, where we can examine many more Fezouata Shale Lagerstätte fossils. We then visit a nearby Devonian trilobite preparation work shop, to view the intricate work that is done to prepare the trilobites. After a picnic lunch here, we visit the well-known Jebel Tiskaouine from which huge numbers of ‘calymene’ trilobites have been mined - these can be found in fossil shops all over the world. These trilobites are in fact not calymenes but are from generas  Neseuretus,Colpocorypte and Flexicalymens. The trilobites are found in the Ktaoua formation and are of Ordovician (Sandbian/Katian) age. The night is spent in a hotel just outside Alnif.

Day 5 – Around Alnif, and into the Maider Basin, the ‘Lost World’ of trilobites. Our first stop of the day is in the Anti-Atlas Mountains north of Alnif to visit a site where large yellow middle Cambrian aged trilobites are mined.  These trilobites are Paradoxides and  Cambropellas, complete specimens of which can be seen in the Alnif shops at our next stop. Alnif is a small town that claims to be the 'Trilobite Capital of the World', as it is in easy striking distance of the rocks containing Cambrian, Ordovician and Devonian trilobites. Alnif also has another wonder: its sub glacial tunnel valley. This formed at the margin of an ice sheet during the end of the Carboniferous Ice Age and we make our next stop here. After this, we continue on to a site known as Bou Dib. It is on the northern escarpment of the famous trilobite mountain, Jbel Isoumour. The rocks here are calcareous marls and limestones and are Devonian (late Emsian–early Eifelian) in age. We spend our time examining loose fossils on the desert floor just below the Psychopyge horizon, named after the famous trilobite species it contains. The horizon has been quarried for many kilometres, and the remaining trench can be traced all along the northern edge of Jebel Isoumour. We then continue to a place called Atchana, which means the ‘dry place’. Here we can spend time with fossil miners who are working the Ihandar Formation which is also Devonian but slightly younger (Pragian) in age. Many wonderful trilobites have been found in this location, including Dicranurus monstrosus, and Paralejurus spatuliformis. After this site we journey further south, off road all the way, to spend the night in a remote desert oasis called Mharch. The accommodation here is the most basic of the trip, in a hotel made of mud, but the rooms are still en-suite, and it is an excellent place to observe the night sky.

Day 6 – The Maider Basin, and onwards to the Erg Chebbi Dunes. Our first stop is the mud-mound of Guelb el Mharch. This is a 45m rocky peak made of crinoidal limestone that was once a submarine mud volcano formed by hydrothermal vents. In the past very rare placoderm fish fossils have been found here. The next stop Aferdou el Mrakib is a mountain which, at first sight, resembles a larger version of Guelb el Mharch, but it is in fact one of the largest known Devonian coral-stromatoporoid reefs in north‐western Gondwana. It is also one of the most southerly discovered shallow-water Givetian (mid Devonian) reefs. The base of the reef contains the famous Drotops megalomanicus trilobite horizon. The next stop is at the base of Jebel el Krabis and is a place where Devonian (Famennian) ammonoids (goniatites) can be seen loose on the desert floor. They have eroded out from hypoxic pelagic shales but have, sadly, been over-collected to supply fossil shops around the world. Apart from goniatites, the Famennian of the area is an important source for brachiopods (especially Rhynchonellids), crinoids, fossil wood, deep-water solitary Rugosa corals, loxopteriid bivalves, trilobites, conodonts, and shark teeth. We then head to the village of Fezzou where we stop lunch in a café and have an opportunity to meet local people. Next, we move on to a nearby site known as Butte 760 by palaeontologists. This site also has many loose eroded fossils lying on the dessert floor; 21 different species of ammonoid have been recorded from here, although they are now rare, but brachiopods remain abundant. We then leave the Maider basin and stop at Jebel Amelane near the city of Rissani. Here Upper Devonian (Famennian) aged orthoceras and ammonoids can be seen in huge slabs of red limestone. Also, from a distance, it is also possible to view the Eifelian-Givetian global stratotype GSSP (golden spike). We then head to Merzouga and the famous sand dunes of Erg Chebbi. Here we really feel that we are in the Sahara Desert - because we are! The next two nights are spent in a 4-Star hotel in Merzouga.

Day 7 - Kem Kem Dinosaur beds and the Filon 12 Mineral mine. Today we drive south through the sand dunes, stopping to see fulgerites which form when lightening hits the sand, to the frontier town of Taouz. We then head to the famous Kem Kem site which is rich in fish, crocodiles and dinosaurs. The rocks are Cretaceous (Cenomanian) in age and were by a Nile sized river. This site has also yielded many teeth and bones dinosaurs of the Spinosaurus and   Carcharodontosaurus. This site is actively mined by fossil miners who dig tunnels into the sandstone. After a couple of hours at this site we move on to the Tadaout-Tizi n’Rsas anticline on the other side of Taouz. The beds in the anticline dip almost vertically so that Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian and Ordovician rocks can be seen in a sequence. One of the most exciting sites lies on the Silurian/Devonian boundary, and here we can see the remains of pelagic crinoids and their floats which are called loboliths. Very close to this site we also see Silurian Orthoceras and Permian aged dykes. We also visit a mineral rich vein that cuts through Ordovician aged rocks. This vein is exploited by the Filon 12 mine. Filon 12 started its life as a haematite mine, but it is now a mine solely for mineralogical specimens. Minerals found here include vanadinite, goethite and haematite. At the mine we can take an underground tour, find our own specimens or buy prized specimens from the miners. Our final stop in the anticline is on the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary and here it is possible to see trace fossils from trilobites and fish tails. The night is spent at the same hotel in Merzouga, and it is possible to take an optional sunset camel ride into the Erg Chebbi dunes.

Day 8 - The Erfoud Area and a traverse of the eastern High Atlas Mountains. Our first stop is a panoramic view of Hamar Laghdad also known as the Kes Kes. Like the Guelb el Mharch, visited earlier on the tour, these are Devonian cold seep mud volcano mounds on which rich coral reefs grew. However, this site is far larger with 40 or more carbonate mounds in a 7km long line. We then briefly stop at the Erfoud quarry where orthoceras slabs with goniatites are quarried. This is followed by a site where crinoids are mined in bell pits. After a picnic we head to the town of Erfoud where we visit an Orthoceras factory/museum. In the factory we are given a guided tour and can see how the quarried Orthoceras slabs are made into many beautiful objects. The upstairs of the factory is a museum with huge trilobite and crinoid specimens on display. After leaving Erfoud we journey north and cross Cretaceous rocks that are also part of the Kem Kem. We stop for a scenic view where the River Ziz cuts a canyon through these beds.  On the outskirts of Errachidia we stop for a view of the looming High Atlas Mountains that rise abruptly to the north of the South Atlas Fault. We then cross this fault and start ascending the mountains as we pass the El Hassan Addakhil reservoir to a stop where we view folding and the Ait Atmane thrust fault. From here we can also view our next stop which is on the other side a beautiful gorge cut into lower Jurassic aged limestones. When we reach this stop, we have a picnic and examine brachiopod fossils. Our route then continues over the mountains with stops at the Foum Zabel and Foum Tillicht strike slip faults, before reaching the northern escarpment of the High Atlas Mountains and the North Atlas Fault. Here we see beautiful folding and get great views of a Quaternary volcano and the Middle Atlas Mountains. We then drop down to our hotel near the town of Midelt which lies in the Moulouya basin between the Middle Atlas and the High Atlas Mountains.

Day 9 – The boundary of the Middle and High Atlas and dinosaur tracks of the M’Goun Geopark. Our first stop of the day, not far from the hotel, is on the southern fringe of the Middle Atlas Mountains and is to see an unconformity with Triassic aged sedimentary rock lying upon Carboniferous aged a granite. We then continue along the southern fringe of the Middle Atlas, with the width of the Moulouya basin continually narrowing as the Middle Atlas and High Atlas mountains come closer together, eventually converging in the vicinity of Aghbala. Here we enter the M’Goun Geopark where we will be for the remainder of the day and most of the next day. After a coffee stop, and immediately after leaving the town, we pass over the North Atlas Fault and we are back in the High Atlas Mountains. The rocks here are bright red and late Jurassic in age and dinosaur footprints have been recovered from the area. The road is now very scenic and passes back and forth over the fault that divides the Middle and High Atlas several times. We stop for views of the fault and of large scale synclines before arriving in the town of Tagelft for lunch. Several dinosaur tracks and bones have been found in the vicinity of the town, but these are not easily accessible, so we travel on to reach the Bin el Ouidane reservoir. Here, close to its shores, we can see two different dinosaur trackways - one of a Theropod dinosaur and another of a Sauropod dinosaur. We then make our way, with two more view stops, to our hotel in Afourer which lies on the Tadla Plain with the High Atlas Mountains looming over the town.

Day 10 – The M’Goun Geopark with the Azizal Museum, Iroutlane-Iwariden dinosaur tracks and Imnifri Natural Bridge. Soon after leaving the hotel, we re-cross the North Atlas Fault and return to the High Atlas mountains, steeply climbing to reach a panoramic view of the Ait Attab syncline. Our next stop is the Azizal Museum, which is the museum for the M’Goun Geopark. In 2014 the geopark became the first UNESCO Geopark to be inscribed in Africa. The star attraction of the museum is a cast of Atlasaurus imelakei. It is one of the largest known dinosaurs and was discovered in the geopark in 1979. We then continue to a picnic site near the town of Demnate for our lunch, before proceeding to the Iroutlane-Iwariden dinosaur tracksite. It is one of the largest dinosaur track sites North Africa, with more than a thousand footprints spread over several different sites. We see tracks from a therapod dinosaur of Megalosaurian affinities, giant sauropod tracks and the only stegosaur footprint to have been identified in North Africa. After leaving the tracks we stop at one final geopark site, the Iminifri Natural Bridge, before starting to head back to Marrakech. We break our journey to visit an agate packing facility that is very close to the Agate Quarry we visited on day one. We will arrive back in Marrakech in the early evening and enjoy a farewell dinner together. The final night is spent in the same hotel that we spent the first night in.

Day 11 – Departure and the Marrakech World Heritage Site. The tour ends after breakfast, but it is recommended that you stay an extra night and join cultural city tour of Marrakech, that we can book for you. A transfer to the airport is included in the tour price if you leave today or the following day (having done the city tour). If you leave for the airport at any other date you will need to make your own arrangements.