Remembering Legzira, Southern Morrocco’s Most Spectacular Beach

You never know when one of your adventures will end up becoming a legendary piece of travel lore. You think you are going for a stroll on one of the world’s most beautiful beaches. Instead, you end up witnessing the last precious moments of a natural wonder that has survived the tests of time… until now.

The central arch on the gorgeous triple-arched Moroccan beach of Legzira is gone. It collapsed in 2016, just a few weeks after we visited, but we only heard the news recently. It’s an enormous loss for Morocco as well as our planet’s natural heritage. Bizarrely, this is the second world famous arch we have visited, which later collapsed.

We first visited Legzira beach during our epic six-week Moroccan road trip. Located in the southern Souss region, the stunning stretch of coast featured two enormous natural arches with a third, smaller arch towards the end of the beach. (Thomas is standing under the third arch in the lead pic.) This otherworldly location would have made a perfect location for a sci-fi or fantasy film. It was breathtaking.

Carved into the red sandstone cliffs over the eons, the surreal series of walk-through arches felt like nature’s gateway to the Moroccan Sahara. There was a palpable magic to the beach. The arches felt like ruins built by a lost civilization of giants. The beauty and romance of Legzira was magnified by a sense of desert desolation: no plants, no palms, just a world of red sand and stone.

It is hard to believe that Legzira was not a household name. Isolated and relatively unknown by 21st-century standards, the beach was virtually deserted for most of our visit. In the Instagram era, that is a rare luxury for global travelers. The one family that did happen by was very local and VERY traditional.

When they spotted us, they hightailed it out of there as fast as they could lest we see the mother’s right eyeball. Yes, glorious isolation and a beautiful sunset made this one of Morocco’s (and the world’s) coolest off-the-beaten-track destinations. Unfortunately, the collapse of the central arch, clearly the highlight of Legzira beach, definitely diminishes the draw of this remote location. I guess we’ll all just have to wait for a couple new arches to slowly erode into the cliffs over time. 🙁

For a more detailed description of the collapse, check out this article, which also includes an image of the fallen arch.