One Of North Africa’s Largest Cave Networks Just Reopened In Morocco

Tucked inside Tazekka National Park, around 30 kilometres south of Taza, Friouato Cave disappears deep into the Moroccan mountains. Its explored passages stretch for 2,178 metres, dropping 271 metres at their deepest point into vast chambers lined with stalactites, stalagmites and ancient rock art.

For more than a decade, those depths were off-limits to visitors. Now, following a major rehabilitation project, Friouato has reopened to the public, bringing one of Morocco’s most extraordinary underground landscapes back onto the travel map.

The journey to Friouato begins long before the cave entrance. From Taza, the road climbs into the park, trading the town behind you for cedar forests, mountain air and increasingly wide views across the landscape. The final 30 to 40 minutes are spent on a paved mountain road that winds towards the cave.

At the entrance, the first descent takes you around 100 metres down into the mountain, and with every step the temperature drops and the daylight thins. The route eventually opens into a succession of vast chambers, where stalactites and stalagmites emerge from the darkness and sections of the walls carry ancient rock art, traces of the people who once sheltered here long before Friouato became a destination.

At its furthest explored point, the cave reaches roughly 271 metres below the surface, with 2,178 metres of passages surveyed so far. It is this combination of depth, scale and history that has made Friouato one of Africa’s deepest known cave systems.

For visitors, reaching those chambers is now considerably safer than it once was. In April 2016, a rockfall inside the cave tragically claimed the life of a schoolteacher during a class trip, prompting authorities to close the site that same week. It remained shut for a decade, long enough for Friouato to slip from memory.

That changed on July 27th, 2026, when Friouato reopened with a safer, more controlled route underground, addressing many of the concerns that had kept the cave closed. Engineers restored the entrance, reinforced weaker sections through targeted drilling, renovated the internal galleries, installed adapted lighting and built a proper car park. Visits are also conducted with trained guides and require an entry fee, giving the descent a more structured experience than it had before.

And while Friouato can easily be visited as a detour from Taza, the better way to experience it is to give the mountain a little more time.

Tazekka National Park stretches out around the cave in a landscape of cedar forests, dry lake beds and winding mountain roads, inviting you to slow the trip down and explore the park before or after your descent.

The easiest way to do that is to stay inside it. Tazekka Parc Hotel sits in the rural commune of Bab Boudir, close to Friouato and surrounded by the park’s mountain landscape. The small, family-run hotel has sixteen rooms, an on-site restaurant serving tajine and couscous made with local produce, and a kitchen guests can use themselves. For a cave that spent ten years out of reach, it is fitting that its return also offers an excuse to slow down and see more of the landscape around it.