Erg Chebbi is a sea of sand dunes covering roughly 50 square kilometers on the eastern edge of Morocco, right beside the town of Merzouga. It is the country’s most accessible stretch of true Sahara Desert, and for many visitors it is what they picture when they think of a Morocco desert tour: reddish-gold dunes that shift with the light throughout the day, with the tallest ridges reaching around 150 meters.
Unlike the wider, flatter reg (stony desert) that surrounds much of the region, Erg Chebbi’s dunes are steep, deeply shadowed at sunrise and sunset, and largely free of vegetation. This makes them well suited to camel trekking, sandboarding on the steeper faces, and overnight camping, since a camp set up even a short walk into the dunes feels fully immersed in the desert.
Because the dunes sit directly against Merzouga, this is the easiest place in Morocco to combine desert scenery with basic infrastructure — guesthouses, camps and tour operators are all a short walk or drive away. Travelers looking for a more remote, less-visited dune field sometimes continue further southwest to Erg Chigaga, near M’Hamid, though that adds a longer drive and a 4x4 transfer for the final stretch.