[2] The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest toward the northeast, to the heights of Ouarzazate and further east to the city of Tafilalt, altogether a distance of approximately 500 km.

[2] In some contexts,[2] the Anti-Atlas is considered separate from the Atlas Mountains system, as the prefix "anti" (i.e. opposite) implies.

[5] The basement rock of Africa (the African Plate) was formed in the Precambrian, and is much older than the Atlas mountains.

A fraction of the Avalonia microcontinent, the Anti-Atlas range formed in the Paleozoic (c. 300 million years ago), as a result of continental collisions.

North America, Europe and Africa were connected as part of two former continents, Euramerica and Gondwana, which ground against one another to create the former Central Pangean Mountains.

More recently, in the Paleogene and Neogene Periods (66 million to ~1.8 million years ago), the remaining mountain chains that today comprise the Atlas were uplifted as the land masses of Europe and Africa collided at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula.

In the Anti-Atlas, the precipitation annually is typically below 200 mm, while the climatic conditions on the north and west slopes are locally more wet and agriculturally favorable.

[6] In the least dry areas to the west and the north, much of the land is covered with thyme, rosemary and other drought tolerant plants, such as argan.