Ouzoud Excursions
In short
The Ouzoud Waterfalls lie in the rural commune of Aït Taguella, Azilal province, which had 8,662 inhabitants in 1,956 households at the 2024 census. Within 18 km of the falls, OpenStreetMap maps eleven places, from the village of Ouzoud beside the falls and the earth-built village of Tanaghmelt to the provincial capital, Azilal, which grew from 38,520 people in 2014 to 48,138 in 2024. The area lives from olives, almonds, livestock and crafts, and since at least 2007 from visitors: terrace restaurants, cafés, craft stalls, campsites, guides and the boatmen below the falls. Tourism also brings rubbish in the river, macaques fed by visitors and drownings in summer. Ouzoud Excursions is part of this picture in a simple way: all our drivers come from the villages around Ouzoud, and we spread our custom across all the local restaurants, cafés, cooperatives, boatmen and guides rather than favouring one.
- The falls are in the commune of Aït Taguella: 8,662 people at the 2024 census
- Eleven villages and towns within 18 km, some far closer by air than by road
- Olives cover 70.5% of fruit-tree land in Azilal province; almonds are the commune's emblem
- Tourism feeds terraces, cafés, craft stalls, campsites, guides and boatmen
- All our drivers come from the villages around Ouzoud
- Buy locally, take your waste back, never feed the macaques, respect swimming signs
Around the Ouzoud Waterfalls live Amazigh farming families who grow olives and almonds, keep sheep and goats, and, for some, earn a living from the visitors who come to see the falls. The falls lie in the rural commune of Aït Taguella, in Azilal province, which counted 8,662 inhabitants at the 2024 census. Within 18 km, eleven villages and towns share the same hills. Tourism brings them real income, and also real problems: rubbish in the river, macaques fed by visitors, drownings in summer. Our goal at Ouzoud Excursions is simple to say: we want the people of Ouzoud and its region to live better from tourism, while we bring more travellers to discover the area.
This page tells the story of these villages as honestly as we can, with official census figures and press reports, all listed at the end. It also says plainly what we do as a company, which is not much more than two things, and what you can do on the day. We would rather tell you four true things than ten nice ones.
Who lives around the Ouzoud Waterfalls?
Mostly rural families of Amazigh origin. The falls themselves are in the commune of Aït Taguella (also written Aït Tagla), in the cercle of Bzou, province of Azilal, region of Béni Mellal-Khénifra. At the 2024 census of the Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP), the commune had 8,662 inhabitants in 1,956 households, up from 8,268 in 2014. The census does not publish figures for individual villages, so nobody can give you an official population for the village of Ouzoud itself.
The province as a whole had 574,112 inhabitants in 2024, and 460,901 of them lived in rural areas: four people in five. According to Wikipedia, people around Azilal are of Amazigh descent, speak Tamazight, and most also speak Moroccan Arabic. Place names are written in Tifinagh on official signs: Ouzoud is ⵓⵣⵓⴷ.
What the visitor sees is only the front of this life. Behind the terraces and souvenir stalls, the valley above the falls is planted with olive, almond, fig and carob trees, and the French Wikipedia describes about a dozen small traditional mills along the water that still work. Further out, on the plateaus, families farm, keep livestock and go to the weekly markets of the bigger towns.
Which villages are near the falls, and how far are they really?
OpenStreetMap maps eleven villages and towns within 18 km of the falls. The map below shows them, and the table that follows compares the straight-line distance with the real distance by road, which we calculated for each one.
| Village or town | As the crow flies | By road from the falls |
|---|---|---|
| Ouzoud | 0.5 km | 0.6 km, 1 min |
| Tanaghmelt | 1.6 km | 6.3 km, 12 min |
| Tabia | 7.5 km | 37.2 km, 50 min |
| Aït Taguella | 10.2 km | 13.8 km, 18 min |
| Aït Aatab | 10.6 km | 24.8 km, 31 min |
| Tisqi | 11.0 km | 31.0 km, 40 min |
| Tamda Noumercid | 12.6 km | 27.7 km, 35 min |
| Taounza | 14.1 km | 27.0 km, 51 min |
| Azilal | 15.3 km | 36.7 km, 47 min |
| Ouaoula | 17.1 km | 26.8 km, 34 min |
| Rfala | 17.3 km | 37.9 km, 48 min |
Places mapped on OpenStreetMap (ODbL) within 18 km of the falls; road distance and driving time from the top of the falls calculated by us with OSRM on 26 October 2026. Mountain roads: allow more time.
The gap between the two columns tells you a lot about life here. Tabia is 7.5 km from the falls as the crow flies but 37.2 km and about 50 minutes by road, because the road has to go around the gorge of the Oued El Abid. Tanaghmelt is 1.6 km away in a straight line and 6.3 km by road. For the families of these villages, the gorge is beautiful and also an obstacle: the market, the school, the health centre or a job at the falls can be a long drive away.
This is also why the area of about 18 km around the falls is the one we use when we say where our drivers come from (more on that below).
What is each village known for?
Some of these places are well documented, others hardly at all. The table gives the commune each place belongs to, its census population and what reliable sources say it is known for. When we found nothing reliable, we say so.
| Place (distance from the falls) | Commune | Population 2014 | Population 2024 | Known for (source) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ouzoud (0.5 km) | Aït Taguella | see Aït Taguella | see Aït Taguella | The village at the falls: terraces, mills, boats, craft stalls (Wikipedia FR, Aujourd'hui le Maroc) |
| Tanaghmelt (1.6 km) | Aït Taguella | about 600 people (press, not census) | not published | Earth-built hillside village, old zaouia, communal hammam (Province of Azilal, BTP News) |
| Tabia (7.5 km) | Tabia | 7,849 | 7,354 | Almond country of Entifa (Province of Azilal; the Entifa link rests on Wikipedia) |
| Aït Taguella (10.2 km) | Aït Taguella | 8,268 | 8,662 | Commune of the falls; Almond Festival since 2024 (Aujourd'hui le Maroc) |
| Aït Aatab (10.6 km) | Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss | 13,797 | 13,409 | Olive-oil and honey units, almond orchards, moussem of Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss (Province of Azilal) |
| Tisqi (11.0 km) | Tisqi | 6,147 | 5,734 | Part of the Aït Attab area of olives and almonds; nothing more specific found |
| Tamda Noumercid (12.6 km) | Tamda Noumercid | 11,922 | 12,959 | Almond processing unit (Province of Azilal) |
| Taounza (14.1 km) | Taounza | 11,488 | 10,254 | Pottery clay of Taounza and Aït Wabit (Province of Azilal) |
| Azilal (15.3 km) | Azilal (urban) | 38,520 | 48,138 | Provincial capital, M'Goun Geopark museum (Geopark report) |
| Ouaoula (17.1 km) | Ouaoula | 24,790 | 26,410 | Almond orchards, livestock-feed storage centre (Province of Azilal) |
| Rfala (17.3 km) | Rfala | 9,749 | 9,352 | No reliable source found beyond the census |
Populations are for the whole commune (HCP 2014 and 2024). The town of Aït Aatab belongs to the commune of Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss, so the figure is the commune's.
Two trends stand out. The town of Azilal grew by about a quarter in ten years, and the commune of the falls also grew, as did Tamda Noumercid and Ouaoula. Meanwhile, several rural communes lost people: Tabia, Tisqi, Taounza, Rfala and Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss. We are careful here: the census does not say why, and we cannot claim that tourism explains the difference.
A few more sourced details. The province lists the moussem of Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss at Aït Attab among the most remarkable of its roughly thirty moussems. The French Wikipedia describes Aït Aâtab as a Sanhaja Amazigh tribe whose land covers three communes (Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss, Tisqi and Taounza), where Central Atlas Tamazight is spoken. And Azilal, whose name means "ridge" in Tamazight according to Wikipedia, is the seat of the M'Goun Geopark association and its museum. English Wikipedia also mentions a Thursday souk in Azilal, which we could not confirm elsewhere.
What is Tanaghmelt, the earth village above the falls?
Tanaghmelt is the village we most like to talk about, because it shows what this area was before the terraces. It is a grouped village of rammed-earth (pisé) houses climbing a hillside in the commune of Aït Taguella. The official website of the province of Azilal cites it, with Aït Hamza and Magdaz, as an example of "beautiful grouped villages" showing "unquestionable architectural mastery".
A 2021 report by BTP News describes houses with walls of earth, straw and lime and wooden roofs, many of the abandoned ones badly cracked for lack of upkeep. It also describes a traditional hammam that the village still runs together, free of charge, each family taking its turn to heat it every three months. The same report says about 600 people live there today, against a former community of nearly 100 families, and that people keep leaving.
The village has a centuries-old zaouia with a library of old works. Sources disagree on its age (one says nine centuries, another gives a date that cannot be right), so we do not give one. They also disagree on the distance: OpenStreetMap puts the village point 1.6 km from the falls, while articles put the zaouia 5 or 8 km away, perhaps because they are not the same spot.
Things are changing. In March 2024, Aujourd'hui le Maroc reported a new 3.3 km paved road from regional road R304 to the douar, costing 3,563,388 dirhams, for about 600 people and more than 120 houses. The commune also plans a walking circuit from the falls to the zaouia of Tanaghmelt. If you visit, remember that it is a lived-in village, not an open-air museum: ask before taking photos of people and homes.
What do people grow and make in the Azilal region?
Olives first. According to the province's agriculture office, olive trees cover 30,630 hectares, 70.5% of all fruit-tree land in Azilal province, and almonds cover 9,800 hectares. The province describes the almond orchards of Entifa, Ouaoula and Aït Attab as "the largest and most beautiful in Morocco"; that is their claim, not ours. Livestock counts about 1.1 million head, mostly sheep and goats, and the province produces about 300 tonnes of honey a year.
Almonds are the emblem of the commune of the falls. Since September 2024, Aït Taguella has held an Almond Festival: the first edition gathered 46 troupes of tbourida (traditional horsemanship) and a local-produce exhibition, and the second, opened on 3 September 2025, had a pavilion for local produce, crafts and cooperatives.
The craft tradition is just as real, and well documented by the province:
| Region-wide figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 62 craft cooperatives, 981 members | Up from 15 cooperatives and 363 members in 2013 | Province of Azilal |
| About 11,000 artisans (estimate) | 2,920 registered with the Chamber of Crafts in 2015 | Province of Azilal |
| 2,000 women weavers, 21 cooperatives in Bzou | Fine silk-and-wool "bzioui" weaving in 23 villages, sold at a Friday afternoon auction | Province of Azilal |
| Pottery clay areas | Taounza and Aït Wabit (Aït Attab); Boughrart, Timzit and Tighrmin (Demnate circle) | Province of Azilal |
| 157 beekeeping, 4 olive-oil and 5 dairy cooperatives | Agricultural cooperatives across the province | Province of Azilal |
| 54 women's cooperatives, "about 200 women" | Funded by INDH between 2019 and 2026, plus 83 women-run businesses | MAP via Béni Mellal News, October 2026 |
The last line is quoted exactly as reported, even though 54 cooperatives for about 200 women means fewer than four members each. The province also built processing units close to the falls: olive oil and honey at Aït Attab, almonds at Tamda Noumercid. If you continue towards Demnate and the Imi n'Ifri natural bridge, you cross more of this olive country.
How does tourism bring income to Ouzoud?
Directly, in the village. Tourism at Ouzoud is not new: in November 2007, Aujourd'hui le Maroc already described craft shops and restaurants serving tagines at the entrance, and small locally built boats ferrying visitors across the river below the falls. Today the French Wikipedia lists reed-hut campsites, swimming spots, small terrace restaurants serving Amazigh food and High Atlas craft shops along the path down. The press adds hotels, bazaars and cafés, and an October 2026 Le360 report quotes accommodation providers who "depend on the appeal of Ouzoud".
Here is what this means in practice. When you stop for mint tea on a terrace, buy a pot or a scarf, take the short boat ride in the spray or hire a local guide, the money goes to people from the area, usually with no middleman. Our guide to eating at Ouzoud describes the terraces, and our Ouzoud travel guide explains the boat and the walk.
Public money is following. In March 2024, Aujourd'hui le Maroc reported a 16-million-dirham programme to turn Aït Taguella into a tourism hub, funded by the Ministry of Tourism, Crafts and Social and Solidarity Economy and the Béni Mellal-Khénifra regional council. Announced items include riverbank works, better access roads, green spaces, lighting, guard-rails at the falls, a new entrance on the Aït Attab side, a water station, a bus and taxi station and walking circuits. We do not know how much of it has been completed.
The falls are also a geosite of the M'Goun UNESCO Global Geopark, in the Global Geoparks Network since 2014. The geopark's 2019 report describes a tourism charter with accommodation providers, training for guides and gîte owners, a label for agricultural and craft cooperatives and help in creating women's cooperatives. The province reports that tourist accommodation grew from 93 establishments in 2014 to 117 in 2019, and credits the geopark label.
What nobody has published is how many people at Ouzoud live from tourism: no official count of guides, boatmen, cafés, stalls or jobs exists, nor any official count of day visitors. We would rather tell you that than invent a number. For the figures that do exist, see Ouzoud in facts and figures.
What problems does tourism cause at Ouzoud?
Tourism helps, and it also hurts. Here are the problems that are documented, with what has been done about them.
Waste and the river. The French Wikipedia notes that although the site is protected as a Site of Biological and Ecological Interest, waste and sewage often end up on the ground and in the river, and new shops eat into the vegetation each year. In 2019 the M'Goun Geopark organised a clean-up and awareness campaign at Ouzoud with the regional council, the commune, local associations and pupils of the Ouzoud secondary school. Summer campaigns by the commune now cover cleanliness, welcome and green spaces.
Macaques fed by visitors. The Barbary macaques of Ouzoud are wild and Endangered on the IUCN Red List. In June 2025, researchers from the University of South Wales and Durham University wrote in The Conversation that they saw, at Ouzoud, "tourists feeding chips, supplied by the tour guide" to macaques standing next to a "do not feed the monkeys" sign. Studies of the Ouzoud troop link this food to more aggression and to the group splitting. Our page on the macaques sets out the research.
Drownings in summer. Heat waves bring many young visitors who want to swim. In June 2026, the daily Aujourd'hui le Maroc reported a formal ban on swimming in certain zones of the pool and new warning signs; the news site Al3omk counted seven drowning victims in the province in four months, and Bladna24 reported in July 2026 that more than six people had died that summer. The commune hired a local man with long experience of the pool to warn visitors, launched the campaign "The falls are not a swimming pool", and a Gendarmerie patrol and a lifeguard were deployed in July. Our swimming guide explains where the danger lies.
Crowds and seasons. Summer, weekends and school holidays bring crowds; the rest of the year can be quiet, and local professionals told Le360 in October 2026 that they hoped the autumn rains would bring visitors back. For families who live from tourism, the income is uneven across the year.
Young people leaving. The press describes the earth village of Tanaghmelt slowly emptying, and the census shows several rural communes losing people while the town of Azilal grows. Tourism alone will not change that, but jobs at the falls are one reason some families can stay.
What does Ouzoud Excursions do for the villages?
We prefer to be exact. Here is what we actually do, and nothing else.
- All our drivers come from the villages around Ouzoud, the area mapped at the top of this page. When you book a trip with us, the person driving you from Marrakech to the falls and back is from this area.
- We work with all the local restaurants, cafés, cooperatives, boatmen and guides, without favouring any. We do not have one "partner" restaurant or one shop where every group is taken. We spread our guests across many places so that the income reaches many families, and that is also why we do not name any of them on this site.
- We only run private trips, one vehicle per group, from Marrakech. Our private Ouzoud tour costs 220 € per vehicle for 1 to 7 people and 330 € for 8 to 17, and includes a local guide at the falls. Our private transport costs 180 € or 250 € per vehicle, and a local guide can be added for 40 € (1 to 7 people) or 80 € (8 to 17) per group. On every trip, you can add the boat ride (5 € per person) and lunch by the falls (30 € per person); the premium day includes everything for 220 € or 330 € per vehicle plus 35 € per person. Each of these options is a service by local people at the falls.
- Our guides ask every guest not to feed the macaques, and to keep their distance.
We do not run a foundation, a school or a donation scheme, and we will not pretend otherwise. If that changes one day, we will say it here, with the details. More about us is on our about page.
How can your visit help the people of Ouzoud?
You have more power than you think. A day at Ouzoud can leave money with local families and leave the place as you found it, or the opposite. These are the habits we suggest to every guest:
| What helps | What to avoid | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Have lunch, tea and snacks on the terraces at the falls | Bringing a full picnic from Marrakech and buying nothing | Meals and drinks are the main income of the village |
| Buy crafts, olive oil or honey on site, and ask where they were made | Haggling to an unfair price for fun | Your purchase goes straight to a family or cooperative |
| Pay boatmen and guides directly, agree the price first | Going through touts or middlemen | The person who works keeps the money |
| Take your rubbish back, plastic bottles above all | Leaving bottles and wrappers by the river | Waste in the river is a documented problem |
| Watch the macaques from a few metres away | Feeding, touching or luring them for a photo | Food from visitors is linked to aggression in the troop |
| Swim only where it is allowed, and read the signs | Swimming in the banned zones of the pool or after rain | Several people drowned in 2026 |
| Cover shoulders and knees away from the water | Walking around the village in swimwear | It is a rural village with conservative customs |
| Ask before photographing people, women and children above all | Pointing a camera at homes and people without asking | Respect, and many people simply prefer not to be photographed |
| Stay a night in the area if you can | Rushing in and out in two hours | Overnight stays spread income beyond the busy path |
If you would like to stay longer, our page on where to stay at Ouzoud lists the guesthouses, hotels and campsites around the falls. Even one night changes the share of your spending that stays in the area.
What don't we know?
Some claims about Ouzoud circulate widely without a solid source, and we leave them out. We could not verify the meaning of the name "Ouzoud" (grinding grain, olive and "delicious" are all suggested), the founding date of the zaouia of Tanaghmelt, when tourism at the falls began, the number of visitors per year, the number of jobs linked to tourism, or the market days of most villages. We also found nothing reliable about Rfala beyond its census figure, and no cooperative based in Ouzoud itself is named in the sources we read. When better sources appear, we will update this page.
Sources
- Population légale ... d'après les résultats du RGPH 2014 (spreadsheet), Haut-Commissariat au Plan, hcp.ma, consulted October 2026
- Population légale du Royaume du Maroc ... selon les résultats du RGPH 2024 (spreadsheet), Haut-Commissariat au Plan, hcp.ma, consulted October 2026
- Nominatim and Overpass queries for places within 18 km of the falls, OpenStreetMap (ODbL), openstreetmap.org, consulted October 2026
- Le Tourisme (archived page), Province d'Azilal, provinceazilal.ma, consulted October 2026
- L'Agriculture, Province d'Azilal, provinceazilal.ma, consulted October 2026
- L'Artisanat, Province d'Azilal, provinceazilal.ma, consulted October 2026
- Cascades d'Ouzoud, Wikipédia (French), fr.wikipedia.org, consulted October 2026
- Azilal, Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org, consulted October 2026
- Aït Aâtab, Wikipédia (French), fr.wikipedia.org, consulted October 2026
- Les Cascades d'Ouzoud, bol d'oxygène à Azilal (22 November 2007), in French, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, aujourdhui.ma, consulted October 2026
- 1,6 milliard de centimes pour aménager les cascades d'Ouzoud (26 March 2024), in French, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, aujourdhui.ma, consulted October 2026
- Une première édition réussie du festival des amandes à Ait Tagla (23 September 2024), in French, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, aujourdhui.ma, consulted October 2026
- La 2e édition du Festival de l'amande d'Aït Tagla vient de démarrer (9 September 2025), in French, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, aujourdhui.ma, consulted October 2026
- Le nombre de décès par noyade inquiète : Ouzoud, un site touristique pris entre afflux estival et dangers de baignade (26 June 2026), in French, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, aujourdhui.ma, consulted October 2026
- Azilal : Zaouiat Tanaghmelt, un patrimoine architectural authentique laissé à l'abandon (2021), in French, BTP News, btpnews.ma, consulted October 2026
- Cascades d'Ouzoud : un débit d'eau exceptionnel redonne son éclat au site touristique d'Azilal (20 October 2026), in French, Le360, le360.ma, consulted October 2026
- Drowning at the Ouzoud Waterfalls brings Azilal's toll to 7 in 4 months (June 2026), in Arabic, Al3omk, al3omk.com, consulted October 2026
- New preventive measures at the Ouzoud Waterfalls (21 July 2026), in Arabic, Bladna24, bladna24.ma, consulted October 2026
- Rapport Géoparc M'Goun Maroc 2019 (PDF), in French, Global Geoparks Network, globalgeoparksnetwork.org, consulted October 2026
- Why can't we stop feeding monkeys? Experts explain the reasons behind a dangerous habit (12 June 2025), The Conversation, theconversation.com, consulted October 2026
- INDH support for 54 women's cooperatives and 83 businesses in Azilal (19 October 2026), in Arabic, Béni Mellal News (MAP), benimellalnews.net, consulted October 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which villages are near the Ouzoud Waterfalls?
OpenStreetMap maps eleven villages and towns within 18 km of the falls: Ouzoud (0.5 km), Tanaghmelt (1.6 km), Tabia (7.5 km), Aït Taguella (10.2 km), Aït Aatab (10.6 km), Tisqi (11.0 km), Tamda Noumercid (12.6 km), Taounza (14.1 km), Azilal (15.3 km), Ouaoula (17.1 km) and Rfala (17.3 km). These are straight-line distances. By road some are much further: Tabia is 37.2 km away because the road goes around the gorge.
Who lives around Ouzoud?
Mostly Amazigh farming families. The falls lie in the rural commune of Aït Taguella, home to 8,662 people in 1,956 households at the 2024 census. The wider area grows olives and almonds and raises sheep and goats. According to Wikipedia, people around Azilal speak Tamazight and most also speak Moroccan Arabic. Many families in the village of Ouzoud also work in the cafés, restaurants, shops and boats that serve visitors.
How does tourism help the people of Ouzoud?
Visitors spend money directly in the village: on terrace lunches, mint tea, craft stalls, campsites, guesthouses, local guides and the small boats that cross the pool below the falls. In 2024 the Ministry of Tourism and the regional council funded a 16-million-dirham programme to improve the site, starting with a paved road to the village of Tanaghmelt. Tourism also brings problems, such as waste, crowds and summer drownings, which visitors can help reduce.
Where do your drivers come from?
All our drivers come from the villages around Ouzoud, the area of about 18 km around the falls shown on the map on this page. They drive the road from Marrakech to the falls and back with our guests, and they know the area as home. They are drivers, not tour guides: when you want guiding at the falls, that is done by a local guide, as an option or as part of our private tour.
How can I visit Ouzoud responsibly?
Five simple habits make a real difference. Buy your lunch, drinks and souvenirs from the people at the falls, and pay boatmen and guides directly. Take your rubbish back with you, plastic bottles above all. Never feed the Barbary macaques, an Endangered species. Respect the signs that ban swimming in parts of the pool. Dress modestly away from the water and ask before photographing people, especially women and children.
What is Tanaghmelt?
Tanaghmelt (also spelled Tanaghmeilt or Tanaghmalt) is an old village of rammed-earth houses stacked up a hillside near the falls, in the commune of Aït Taguella. The province of Azilal cites it among its finest grouped villages. About 600 people live there, according to the press. It has a centuries-old zaouia and a communal hammam that families heat in turn. In 2024 a 3.3 km paved road reached it.
What crafts come from the Azilal region?
The province of Azilal documents pottery made from local clay at Taounza and Aït Wabit, in the Aït Attab area, and in the Demnate circle. In Bzou, about 2,000 women in 23 villages weave fine silk-and-wool textiles known as bzioui, sold at an auction every Friday afternoon. The province counted 62 craft cooperatives with 981 members. Craft stalls also line the path down to the falls.
Are the villages around Ouzoud growing or shrinking?
Both. Between the 2014 and 2024 censuses, the town of Azilal grew from 38,520 to 48,138 people and the commune of the falls, Aït Taguella, from 8,268 to 8,662. Several rural communes nearby lost people: Tabia, Tisqi, Taounza, Rfala and Moulay Aïssa Ben Driss. The press describes young people leaving the earth village of Tanaghmelt. We cannot say how much tourism weighs in these trends.
