Dakhla Lagoon Beach

Dakhla Lagoon is simply one of the most remarkable places on earth. Located on a narrow 40-kilometre peninsula extending into the Atlantic in southern Morocco at latitude 23°N — roughly level with the Tropic of Cancer — the lagoon is a vast protected body of warm, shallow, turquoise water pinned between the desert peninsula on one side and the open Atlantic on the other. The trade winds that funnel down the North African coast here have the consistency, force and flatness that kitesurfers dream of: blowing predictably from the northeast for 300 or more days per year, creating conditions that have made Dakhla the unchallenged global capital of flat-water kitesurfing since the early 2000s.

The IKA (International Kiteboarding Association) has staged competitions here; professional riders from across the world use the lagoon for training and filming; world records have been set on this water. The centre and south of the peninsula is lined with kite camps and small resorts — mostly simple, wind-optimised facilities — run by European operators who identified the lagoon's potential when the area was still almost entirely off-grid. Today Dakhla sees tens of thousands of sport tourists per year, mostly European, and has developed the infrastructure to support them without entirely losing its Saharan frontier atmosphere. The town of Dakhla itself (properly Dakhla City) is a sprawling, sun-bleached settlement of around 100,000 people on the north side of the lagoon.

Beyond kitesurfing, the lagoon beach experience at Dakhla has its own extraordinary sensory character: the water is warm, shallow and transparent, the sand fine and white, the horizon beyond utterly flat, and the silence — except for the wind and occasional kite rigging — total. The landscape combining Saharan dunes descending to turquoise water is unique in the world. Flamingos, spoonbills, and other shore birds feed in the shallower lagoon sections. Quad biking on the dune systems behind the beach, camel trekking, and visits to the Mauritanian fishing village of Puerto Cansado add desert adventure to the water sports mix.