Erfoud
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Erfoud Arfud / Arfoud / أرفود |
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Central Market Souq of Erfoud
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 Erfoud
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| Coordinates: 31°26′10″N 4°13′58″W / 31.43611°N 4.23278°WCoordinates: 31°26′10″N 4°13′58″W / 31.43611°N 4.23278°W | |
| Country |
 Morocco
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| Region | Drâa-Tafilalet |
| Province | Errachidia |
| Elevation | 2,648 ft (807 m) |
| Population (2004) | |
| • Total | 23,637 |
| • Ethnicities | Arabs, Berbers |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | WEST (UTC+1) |
| Postcode | 52200 |
Erfoud (Berber: Arfud; Arabic: أرفود) is an oasis town in the Sahara Desert, in the Drâa-Tafilalet region in eastern Morocco. It is divided into several districts: Hay Salam, Hay Jdid, Hay Ziz, Hay el Bathaa, Hay Annahda, and Hay el Hamri.
Due to its proximity to Merzouga desert village in the Erg Chebbi Dunes, Erfoud has developed tourist-related infrastructures such as hotels and restaurants.
Erfoud is a destination for filmmakers due to the beauty of the surrounding Sahara Desert and the town's oasis areas. Erfoud has been a filming location for many films, including:
This area of Morocco has also been identified as being very similar in appearance and possibly geology to certain areas on the planet Mars. Because of this, there is an interest in this area as a field research location for Mars analogue research.
In February 2013 the Austrian Space Forum spent the whole month with a field team including two space suit simulators (Aouda.X and Aouda.S) and a number of rovers to conduct a large number of experiments. They were supported by a Mission Support Center run from Innsbruck, Austria to simulate a mission to the surface of Mars. The main desert base camp was named Camp Weyprecht on February 11, with a later satellite camp about 80 km further south being called Station Payer.
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Wikipedia