Erg Chebbi or Erg Chigaga? How to choose your dunes in the Moroccan Sahara

Choose Erg Chebbi, the dunes of Merzouga, if you want high dunes, tarmac all the way to the sand, the widest choice of camps and a route that links the gorges with Fes or Marrakech. Choose Erg Chigaga, beyond M'Hamid, if you want a bigger, emptier sea of dunes and don't mind a long 4x4 track at the end of a road that leads nowhere else. From Marrakech, both need at least three days.

Our own desert tours go to Merzouga and Zagora, not to Erg Chigaga. Here is how the two ergs compare, with the sources behind the numbers.

Erg Chebbi and Erg Chigaga at a glance

	Erg Chebbi (Merzouga)	Erg Chigaga (M'Hamid)
Highest dunes	about 150 m above the plain (Lonely Planet: 160 m)	50–60 m in most references (Lonely Planet: 300 m)
Size	about 28 km long, 5–7 km wide	about 40 km long, usually called Morocco's largest erg
Gateway	Merzouga and Hassilabied, at the foot of the dunes	M'Hamid El Ghizlane, 50–60 km away by track
From Marrakech	about 560 km, 9–10 hours	about 450 km to M'Hamid (8–9 hours), then 2–3 hours by 4x4
From Fes	about 7 hours	two long days
Last stretch	tarmac to the edge of the sand	4x4 track over sand, stony plain and dry lake beds
Camps	dozens, from simple tents to luxury camps	fewer, smaller, spread out among the dunes
On the way	Dades and Todra gorges, Rissani, the road to Fes	Draa Valley palm groves; a dead end
Cost	lower for the same number of nights	higher: 4x4 transfer, often an extra night
Best for	a first desert trip, families, Fes to Marrakech	solitude, a second Sahara trip

Driving times are without stops.

How high are the dunes?

Published heights don't agree, so be wary of round numbers and of "tallest in Morocco" claims.

• Erg Chebbi. Wikipedia gives dunes rising about 150 m above the stony hamada around them, Lonely Planet 160 m. The one dune scientists have studied closely, Lala Lallia, a star dune near Hassilabied, is about 100 m high on its own, according to a 2024 study in Scientific Reports.
• Erg Chigaga. Wikipedia says some dunes stand more than 50 m above the landscape and Wikivoyage gives up to 60 m, while Lonely Planet says the crests peak at 300 m. We found no measurement that settles it.

The shape is easier to describe. Erg Chebbi is compact: a narrow band of orange dunes that rises sharply from a flat grey plain, so the big ones show from far away. Erg Chigaga is longer and more spread out, a sea of dune ridges between rocky hills.

Erg Chebbi: high dunes at the end of the tarmac

Erg Chebbi runs for about 28 km from north to south along the Algerian border. Merzouga and Hassilabied sit on its western edge, with hotels and guesthouses along the foot of the dunes, and Rissani, the old caravan town, is 35 to 40 km away. You can drive right up to the sand.

The classic evening is a camel ride into the dunes at sunset, a night in a camp and sunrise from a high dune. On our 3-day tour the ride into camp takes about two hours, and you can reach the camp by 4x4 instead if you'd rather not ride (our guide to camel rides in Morocco explains what to look for). With a spare day there is much more: nomad families, the Gnawa musicians of Khamlia, Rissani's market and, after rare heavy rain, lakes at the edge of the dunes, as after the September 2024 storms. Our list of things to do in Merzouga goes into detail, and our Merzouga page has the essentials.

The downside is popularity. Many camps stand on the outer edge of the erg, quad and buggy rides start from the villages, and the first line of dunes near Merzouga can be busy and noisy in the late afternoon. Camps further into the sand are quieter, and a luxury camp in Erg Chebbi adds real beds and a private bathroom.

Erg Chigaga: remote dunes at the end of the Draa

Erg Chigaga lies about 56 km south-west of M'Hamid El Ghizlane, the last village of the Draa Valley, where the tarmac ends. Wikipedia and Lonely Planet both call it the largest of Morocco's ergs; Lonely Planet puts its length at about 40 km, with the Jebel Bani ridge to the north.

There is no road. From M'Hamid, a 4x4 covers 50 to 60 km of sand, stony hamada and dry lake beds, which takes two to three hours, and the camps are reached by 4x4 or by camel. Another track heads west to Foum Zguid, about three hours away, past Lake Iriqui in Iriqui National Park (created in 1994): usually a dry bed, it filled in September 2024 for the first time since 1968.

The camps are fewer, smaller and spread out among the dunes, so evenings are generally quiet and the sky very dark. The price is the journey. The transfer is long, bumpy and dusty, there is nothing to do but the desert itself, and you leave by the same track or by the one to Foum Zguid, so Chigaga doesn't fit into a loop with the gorges as Merzouga does. The 4x4 and the extra night it usually takes make it dearer than a Merzouga trip of the same length. Don't try the track on your own: it's easy to get lost, so leave your car in M'Hamid and travel with a local driver.

We don't run Chigaga trips ourselves; if you are weighing it against Merzouga for your dates, ask us and we'll give you a straight answer.

Getting there: how many days you need

Erg Chebbi. Merzouga is about 560 km from Marrakech, 9 to 10 hours of driving without stops, over the High Atlas and past the Dades and Todra gorges. Three days is the minimum and four or five are comfortable; we describe the stages in Marrakech to Merzouga: the route explained. From Fes it's about 7 hours through the Middle Atlas and the Ziz Valley, and many travellers carry on to Marrakech afterwards: see our desert tours from Fes.

Erg Chigaga. The road crosses the High Atlas to Ouarzazate, then follows the Draa through Agdz and Zagora to M'Hamid: about 450 km and 8 to 9 hours of driving from Marrakech, before the 2 to 3 hours of track. From Marrakech, that puts the camp 10 to 12 hours of travel away, so two days is not realistic. Plan three days at the very least, with two very long days, and four for a gentler pace. From Fes, M'Hamid is two long days' drive away, so Chigaga only makes sense as part of a longer trip through the south.

By air. Royal Air Maroc flies from Casablanca to Errachidia, about 130 km from Merzouga, and to Ouarzazate and Zagora, about 95 km from M'Hamid. Flights are few and schedules change, so check them before you plan around one.

And Zagora?

Zagora is the closest place to Marrakech with sand dunes and a desert camp, about 7 hours away, and the only real option if you have two days. Its dunes are small next to Erg Chebbi or Erg Chigaga, but you still get the camel ride at sunset, the camp and the stars. Our page on Sahara tours from Marrakech compares Zagora and Merzouga by trip length. M'Hamid is another 95 km down the same road. As for Agafay, 45 minutes from Marrakech, it is a stony desert of hills with no dunes at all: see is the Agafay desert worth visiting?

Which one is right for you?

• A first trip to Morocco: Erg Chebbi. High dunes, a paved road, and the gorges and kasbahs on the way.
• Travelling with children: Erg Chebbi, for the shorter last stretch and the choice of comfortable camps, without two or three hours of bumpy track.
• Photography: both, for different pictures. Erg Chebbi for tall dune shapes rising from a flat plain, Erg Chigaga for wide horizons with fewer camps in the frame.
• Looking for solitude: Erg Chigaga, if you have the extra day. In Merzouga, ask for a camp deeper in the dunes.
• Short on time: Zagora, with our 2-day Zagora desert tour.
• Arriving or leaving via Fes: Erg Chebbi, which lies on the way between Fes and Marrakech.
• Both in one trip: possible with a week or more, since M'Hamid is a long day's drive from Merzouga, but we'd usually suggest giving the time to one erg.

Both are at their best from October to April; our guide to the best time to visit the Sahara goes through the months.

If Erg Chebbi is your choice, our 3-day Merzouga desert tour is the quickest way there from Marrakech, and the 5-day Marrakech to Merzouga tour adds a full day around the dunes and returns through the Draa Valley.