Game of Thrones Filming Locations in Morocco — A Themed Route

When Game of Thrones needed the sun-baked cities of Slaver's Bay for its third season, it came to southern Morocco — a region that had already stood in for ancient Rome, Egypt and Judea in dozens of films. The dry heat, the ochre mud-brick architecture and the enormous skies gave the production ready-made 'eastern' cities without building them from scratch, and the local film industry around Ouarzazate supplied crews, extras and set-building experience honed over decades. The result is that several places you can still walk through today appeared on screen as Daenerys Targaryen's conquests.

Two locations carry the story. Essaouira, the windswept Atlantic port, became Astapor — the slave city where Daenerys acquires the Unsullied and turns them against their masters — with its honey-coloured sea ramparts doing the heavy lifting. Ait Benhaddou, the great fortified village on the old caravan road, became Yunkai, the second of the slaver cities she besieges. Ouarzazate, half an hour from Ait Benhaddou, was the base where interiors and additional sets were handled in its studios. Together they make a coherent themed route, provided you understand that the coast and the desert lie in opposite directions from Marrakech.

Each site rewards a slightly different kind of visit. At Essaouira you are walking a living, working medina and fishing port, so the Game of Thrones connection is a layer on top of a place worth seeing anyway — stand on the Skala de la Ville, the sea-facing bastion lined with old brass cannons, and you are on the walls that framed Astapor. At Ait Benhaddou you climb through a genuine ksar of stacked earthen houses; the silhouette that played Yunkai is the whole hillside village seen from across the river. Ouarzazate's studios are the opposite: purpose-built backlots where you tour standing sets under guide supervision.

Because these are real places and not a theme park, do not expect signposted 'photo spots' or costumed staff. Half the pleasure is recognising an angle for yourself, and a location-savvy local guide at Ait Benhaddou or in the studios can point out exactly where cameras stood. Fans of the show will get more from the trip if they rewatch the relevant Season 3 episodes beforehand so the geography clicks into place on the ground.

The heart of the route is the pair of southern sites, which sit close enough to combine. From Marrakech the N9 climbs over the Tizi n'Tichka, the 2,260-metre High Atlas pass, then drops toward Ouarzazate; a signed turn-off leads to Ait Benhaddou. Many visitors do the classic order in reverse of the drive — reaching Ait Benhaddou first, crossing the river to climb the ksar, then continuing to Ouarzazate for the studios. Entering the village itself is free, but you will be asked for small fees to cross the river by the sandbag stepping stones when the water is up, or to look inside individual inhabited houses.

Doing this as a single long day trip from Marrakech is possible but tiring — eight hours of driving bookending a rushed few hours on site. Staying a night in Ait Benhaddou or Ouarzazate is far better: you catch the ksar in the soft light of late afternoon and dawn, tour the studios unhurried, and can push on to the Telouet kasbah and the old Tizi n'Telouet road, a cinematic detour that most day-trippers miss. Our Ait Benhaddou and Telouet kasbahs route covers that pairing in detail.

Ouarzazate's two big backlots — Atlas Studios and CLA Studios — are where the region's film industry is most visible, and both offer guided walk-throughs of standing sets from productions filmed here over the years. You cannot wander freely; entry is by guided tour on a fixed loop, which keeps things moving and protects the sets. The sets are a mix from many films rather than a Game of Thrones shrine, so treat the studios as a screen-history experience rather than a scene-by-scene pilgrimage. Our dedicated Ouarzazate film studios guide breaks down what each one holds.

Costs across a southern day are modest. Studio entry runs in the tens of dirham per person, Ait Benhaddou's crossing and house fees are small and cash-only, and a local guide at the ksar is worth the extra. Carry enough cash for all of it, because card payment is patchy once you leave Ouarzazate town.

Both work, and the right choice depends on your appetite for mountain driving. A hire car gives you total freedom to linger at viewpoints on the Tizi n'Tichka, detour to Telouet, and time the ksar for golden hour — but the pass is long, winding and occasionally closed by winter snow, and you will be tired. An organised tour removes the driving and usually bundles Ait Benhaddou and Ouarzazate into a set itinerary; shared minibus day trips from Marrakech start from around 350 MAD per person, while a private car with driver costs more but lets you set the pace and stop for photos.

For Essaouira as Astapor, the calculus is simpler: it is an easy coastal run with good roads, well served by tours and a comfortable self-drive. If your priority is the Game of Thrones angle specifically, a private guide who knows the exact filming positions adds the most value at Ait Benhaddou and in Essaouira's medina, where the on-screen geography is easy to lose among the everyday streets.

Essaouira is the odd one out geographically — it lies west of Marrakech on the Atlantic, the opposite direction to the desert sites, so it cannot share a day with them. Give it its own trip. The Astapor scenes used the Skala de la Ville, the ramparts and the bastion where the old cannons line up facing the sea, plus the ochre walls above the fishing harbour. Standing there with the Atlantic wind and the gulls, it takes only a little imagination to see the Unsullied ranked below.

Essaouira rewards the visit far beyond its screen credits: a compact walkable medina, a working port with grilled-fish stalls, and the relaxed pace that makes it a favourite coastal break. Fans can tick off Astapor in an hour and then simply enjoy the town — pair it with a plate at the Essaouira seafood restaurants or a night in one of the medina riads if you stay over.

Once you start looking for filming locations, southern Morocco reveals dozens. The same Ait Benhaddou and Ouarzazate studios have stood in for Rome in Gladiator, ancient Egypt, Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven and the deserts of Lawrence of Arabia, which is why the region markets itself as Ouallywood. A themed route built around Game of Thrones naturally widens into a broader screen-tourism trip if you have the time and interest.

To plan that out, our Morocco film locations overview maps the country's cinematic sites beyond this one franchise, and the Ouarzazate film studios guide goes deeper on the backlots themselves. Treat Game of Thrones as your entry point and the desert's century of film-making as the reward.