Rising out of the desert plain, huge monuments pay homage to traditional Moroccan building techniques and the vastness of the universe.
Rabat – Tucked between Goulmima and Erfoud, and en route to the popular desert town Merzouga, lies one of the desert’s greatest hidden treasures – a collection of massive land art sculptures. The final masterpiece of German artist Hansjörg Voth, it merges architecture with a vision of the stars in a place that already feels vast and heavenly.
The three sculptures – the Stairway to Heaven, Golden Spiral, and City of Orion – were completed over a thirty year period between 1980 and 2003.
In the vastness of Southeastern Morocco, Voth pursued his vision to turn an empty patch of desert into a masterpiece of art.
Using natural materials and traditional building techniques like ramming, his artworks pay homage to Moroccan traditions while creating an astonishing and futuristic outdoor museum.
Accessing the sculptures requires a MAD 150 ticket and a 4W4 vehicle. You can also organise a tour or car through a local travel agency in Erfoud, only a 30 minute drive away.
Built between 1980 to 1987, the Stairway to Heaven (l’Escalier Céleste), is a 16 m high triangular mud building. It has 56 stairs and vertical walls that taper towards a slit that opens up to the sky like an ancient observatory, appearing to link the heavens and earth.
Built between 1992 and 1997, the Golden Spiral (Spirale D’or), is 260 m spiral ramp that rises 6 m above the ground with a well at the heart of the structure. From above it looks like a nautilus shell – a symbol of natural harmony and mathematical perfection.
Built between 1998 and 2003, the City of Orion (la Cité d’Orion) is probably Voth’s most ambitious project. Mirroring the Orion constellation, each of the seven rectangular towers built out of rammed earth represents a star in the constellation, accurately showing their size, brightness and spatial orientation.
Each tower not only acts as a star map, but also an observatory, allowing viewers to track the procession of the stars, while one of the tallest towers also contains a staircase deep into the desert earth.
More than just a structure, these works of art are also buildings with rooms designed to be lived in.
Within the outer shells lie other deeper treasures to be discovered: a floating boat, a pair of wings, a star observatory, all serving to unite the physical world with the cosmos beyond in an immensely poetic yet mathematical approach to art.
Stumbling upon these artworks in the vastness of the desert truly makes you wonder about the grandeur of the universe and our place within it.
