Merzouga is a small village in Morocco's desertic southeast, approx. 40km to the southeast of Erfoud. Next to Merzouga starts the Sahara desert and (together with the ones at M'hamid) there are the only big sand dunes of Morocco, an authentic Saharan "Erg". The name of the dunes is Erg Chebbi and they extend for 22km from north to south and are up to 5km wide. The dunes reach a maximum height of 150m and the colour of the sand is orange. Near Merzouga is a lake with in winter is populated by birds colonies.