Jebel Ayachi

Jebel Ayachi (sometimes written Ayyachi) is a colossal mountain. Michael Peyron describes Ayyachi as "aloof and lofty." She is "a queen among Morocco's mountains," as she puts it. Jebel Ayachi, which stands at 3,757 meters, is home to a plethora of unique and exquisite birds. The mountain's lower slopes still include vestiges of beautiful cedar woods. Junipers survive, but few healthy cedars do, with dead standing trees standing obstinately upright, silver skeletons echoing a colder, wetter past. As one climbs, stunning cirques guard the northeastern aspects, revealing the delicate geologic folds created by the tectonic forces that drove these mountains higher. Snow can be found well into the summer. As it melts, the sheer expanse of shattered shingle rock that covers the unimpressive summit dome can feel more like a dull hill – nevertheless the views up top are spectacular.

The slopes are imprinted with a crosshatch of trails that centuries, and perhaps millennia of grazing herds and their shepherds have trod. These mountains are rich with the history of the Amazighien (the Free People). Zawiya Sidi Hamza, below the southern slopes has been the seat of the Hamzawin holy men for half a millennium, one of whom is the massifs name sake – Bu Salim Ayyachi from the 17th century.

Location: Morocco, ‎North Africa‎, ‎Africa
Elevation: 3,757 m
Parent range: Atlas Mountains