Valley of the Roses – Kelaa M’gouna

Valley of the Roses – Kelaa M’gouna

Valley of the Roses Kelaa M’gouna, which has a population of roughly 15,000 people, is located less than 50 kilometers from Skoura. It is a walled village at an elevation of 1,500 meters that is well-known for its distillery producing rose water. This is the Valley of the Roses, another of our highly suggested stops on the tours to Morocco, which is situated in Morocco at the base of the High Atlas Mountains, where it meets the Dades Valley.

The hectares of rose bushes that make up the Valley of the Roses, with their entrancing scents, are enjoyed for the entire month of May. This place has breathtaking and seductive environment where you can get lost. The distillation of essences, the production of perfume, and the cultivation of roses are the three most important enterprises in this region. Flowers bloom from mid-April until mid-May. The Chleuh Berber ethnic group makes up the majority of the people in Kelaa M’gouna. This thriving city serves as the regional population’s economic, commercial, and social hub and is well-known for hosting the Festival of Roses each May.

The French introduced the damask rose to Kelaa M’gouna in 1938. The first distillery for rose water in the region opened its doors at this time. The first Festival of Roses started shortly after, and it has since developed into a custom.

Festival of Valley of the Roses

Every year, the first weekend in May is dedicated to the Fiesta or Festival de las Rosas. It commemorates the two-day blooming of these flowers in the Dades and M’goun valleys. The population of Kalaat M’gouna doubles during this moussem or festival. It is a location that many Moroccans who reside in other Moroccan cities travel to. It is renowned for its rose water-based fragrances and cosmetics, as well as for the friendliness and kindness of its inhabitants. Visitors to Kelaa M’gouna can learn about the local agriculture and small craft products during the festival. Since it takes around a ton of extract to make one liter of extract, more than 4,000 tons are produced throughout the event.

The Festival of the Roses involves a delectable banquet being prepared alongside local Berber tribes singing, dancing, flashing their swords, and playing traditional musical instruments, just like other festivals you may learn about with our travels to Morocco. The candidates for Miss Valley of the Roses also ride in a parade of floats.