Ouarzazate
City in Morocco
Ouarzazate (; Standard Moroccan Tamazight: ⵡⴰⵔⵣⴰⵣⴰⵜ Arabic: ورزازات, romanized: Warzāzāt, IPA: [warzaːˈzaːt]) is a city and capital of Ouarzazate Province in the region of Drâa-Tafilalet, south-central Morocco.
Ouarzazate is a primary tourist destination as well as a starting point for excursions into and across the Draa Valley and the desert. The fortified village Aït Benhaddou west of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Ouarzazate area is a noted film-making location, with Morocco's biggest studios inviting many international companies to work here. Films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Living Daylights (1987), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Kundun (1997), Legionnaire (1998), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), The Wages of Fear (2024) and The Odyssey (2026) were shot here, as was part of the TV series Game of Thrones. It was the filming location for the fictional city of Agapenta in the fourth season of the Netflix series Outer Banks.
Etymology
Originally, the name Ouarzazate did not designate an urban settlement, but rather the topographical feature of a riverbed : In Tachelhit, the name is formed from the elements War and Zazat, meaning "without noise" or "without confusion", This expression historically referred to a specific point along the local river where the channel widens after emerging from the narrow passage coming from Ait Zineb, softening the sound of its flow, before narrowing once again toward the Draa River.
Early historical documents such as confirm this geographical origin by explicitly referring to "Oued Ouarzazate" long before any modern town existed. Al-Bakri's Book of Roads and Kingdoms mentions Ouarzazate as a territory belonging to the Haskoura tribe rather than a city, The later popular interpretation of the phrase as "the quiet city" represents a secondary extension derived from the original meaning tied to the river.
History
For a long time, Ouarzazate was a small crossing point for African traders on their way to northern Morocco and Europe.
The public source identifies “Ouarzazate” as city in Morocco. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ouarzazate, City and Morocco.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ouarzazate”, the useful work is to connect “city in Morocco” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q505208. VIAF identifies the subject as 150169468. Authority coordinates are 30.917, -6.917. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1975, 1987 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ouarzazate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.