Merzouga

The village is a single street of guesthouses and tour agencies backing directly onto the Sahara — step out your door and the dunes of Erg Chebbi begin, literally, at the edge of town. By dawn the sand is cool underfoot. By noon it burns. The transition from civilisation to wilderness happens in a hundred metres. In spring, the seasonal salt lake Dayet Srij fills with rainwater and, improbably, flamingos — wading pink birds against a backdrop of golden dunes.

Merzouga is the gateway town to Erg Chebbi, sitting at the western base of the dune field at an elevation of roughly 700 metres. The village has grown from a handful of Berber homes to a tourism hub, though it retains a one-street simplicity. Most visitors use Merzouga as a launch point for camel treks and desert camps, departing in the afternoon and returning after sunrise the next morning. The seasonal lake Dayet Srij, three kilometres south, attracts greater flamingos, ruddy shelducks, and other migratory waterbirds between March and May. Gnawa music — rooted in the sub-Saharan heritage of the Haratine people who settled here — is performed nightly at many camps and guesthouses.