Morocco · MA

Toubkal

Jebel Toubkal is the roof of North Africa. At 4,167 m (13,671 ft) it is the highest point in Morocco, in the whole Atlas range and across the Arab world — a vast, sunlit mountain that a fit walker can stand on top of within two days of leaving Marrakesh, just 63 km to the north. This is why it has become one of the great accessible high-mountain adventures on Earth: a true summit above 4,000 metres reached without ropes, and rewarded with a horizon that, on a clear morning, takes in the Atlas peaks, the faint shimmer of Marrakesh and the desert beyond. The climb runs up through Toubkal National Park, Morocco's first national park, a protected high-country of walnut gorges, Berber villages perched on terraced slopes and volcanic ridges carved into alpine crests. From the trailhead village of Imlil you walk past floodplain orchards and mountain shrines, up to a stone refuge for the night, then set off before dawn along the scree to the summit trig point — one of the most beloved two-day hikes in Africa.