The mud village in the Atlas Valley that Hollywood chose as the setting

This is Aït Benhaddou, an ancient fortified village in the Ounil Valley, east of the Atlas Mountains, Morocco. It's a small village the world has seen on the big screen. As the morning sun casts its shadows across the brick-colored mud walls, every reflection seems to tell us that this small village is more than just a village, but a stage on which the world has watched on a movie screen.

Located on the banks of the Ounil River in Morocco, Aït Benhaddou is a Ksar, or ancient fortified village.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, it was once a stopping point for caravans carrying salt, gold, and spices across the Sahara Desert.
Every sun-dried brick contains the sweat and dreams of the travelers.

This location has served as the setting for several legendary films:
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962), a war film and biography that tells the story of Lawrence of Arabia.
• Jesus of Nazareth (1977), a miniseries filming the life of Jesus in a real desert setting.
• The Jewel of the Nile (1985), a romantic adventure film that used this village as a setting in Egypt.
• Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), which used this village as the "Colosseum of North Africa," the scene where the hero is sold into slavery.
• It also appeared in Game of Thrones (2013) as the setting for Yunkai, a city in Essos.

These filmings not only brought fame to the small Atlas Valley village,
but also brought some of the revenue and repairs back to the community.

Today, walking through the narrow alleys lined with colorful cloths, Or see a man riding a donkey through a stream—these images overlap both real life and fictional scenes from the film.

Aït Benhaddou is more than just a tourist attraction; it's a "scene of life," connecting past, present, and imaginary worlds.

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