Ouzoud Falls is the tallest waterfall in Morocco, dropping 110 metres in three tiers of red limestone into a gorge in the Middle Atlas, a few hours from Marrakech, where olive terraces step down the walls and wild Barbary macaques live in the trees along the path. The water is the El-Abid, and it runs fullest in spring, from March to May, when the snowmelt off the High Atlas swells the drop and thickens the rainbow that hangs in its mist most afternoons; along the stream above the falls, families from the village of Tanaghmeilt still run small water-powered flour mills, channelling the current through narrow races to turn their grindstones, and the mills gave the falls their name. A stone path switchbacks down through the olive terraces to the pool at the foot of the drop, with cafés on the ledges and the whole 110 metres thundering straight in front of you, and small wooden rafts ferry visitors across the base pool for a few dirhams, right under the spray.
The macaques are the other reason. Troops of wild Barbary macaques move through the trees along the upper trail, mostly unbothered by passing hikers and interested in their bags, and they are rarer than they look: the whole species, scattered across Morocco and Algeria, has dwindled to a few thousand, thinned by habitat loss and the illegal pet trade, and the troop at Ouzoud is one of the easiest to see anywhere. Below the falls the river leaves the pool and threads on through the canyon, winding between boulders and oleander, and a walk down the gorge for an hour finds pools to swim in with nobody at them. The falls are a day trip from Marrakech for most people, busiest in the middle of the day, and quiet in the early morning when the monkeys come down to the water. Ouzoud is a waterfall in an olive grove, and the monkeys watch it from the trees.