The End of the Road: Figuig

The End of the Road: Figuig
Rabat, Morocco
October 11, 2007
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The end of the road is where a traveller’s dream begins. All travelers have a special affection for the places where long roads meet their end. From the looks of it, Figuig, hidden in the farthest south eastern corner of Morocco, is such a place. I think that I will go there. I need to feel out the end of my tether right now.

Being a touch off- kilter with the inhabited parts of Morocco, I searched the map for the most desolate, remote, nowhere looking place that I could find. By any account, I would have to say that this place is Figuig. A few paces to the east and south is Algeria, to the north and west is dry, grizzled desert. It is the back door of Morocco, and, as least since ‘95, it is a door that has been locked closed. At one time Figuig was a common stop over on the old route between the Moroccan and Algerian Sahara, but now that the border has been closed for some time, the traffic to this little date producing town has since dried up. I want to find out what is left out there.