a land apart

Dakhla is located in the region known as Western Sahara. Formerly called Villa Cisneros, this town and the surrounding sandy areas were flown over by many French heroic aviators such as Jean Mermoz, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Emile Lécrivain who himself took French writer Joseph Kessel for a long flight journey connecting Toulouse to Dakar.

Today Dakhla is inhabited by an ever growing population of Moroccans and foreigners, kitesurfers, hotel managers, real estate developers, intrepid globetrotters and local fishermen. Although the area is controlled and administered by the Moroccan government, this vast territory remains the only one in Africa whose status is pending and the UN classifies it as a “non-autonomous territory”.  

It is a land apart.