Meknes - Day 4

Old wall surrounding stables

The next day we headed for Meknes, one of Morocco’s former royal cities (capital). Meknes is famous for buildings erected by Sultan Moulay Ismail bin Sharif, the founder of the Alawite dynasty. He built the area into an impressive city in Apanish-Moorish style. 

Large decorated gate of palace 

The palaces and other buildings were surrounded by high walls with great doors, many of which are still standing (or leaning) today. At one time those defensive walls – with 9 monumental gates – held 25 mosques, ten hammams (public baths), a number of palaces, vast graneries, fondouks (inns for merchants) as well as private houses. Many of the building were built to match his image of Versailles.

Ismail’s famous stable housed 12,000 horses under a single roof supported by stone arches. Three long corridors with an incredible number of stalls filled a huge area...an area that sadly caved in during the Portuguese earthquake in the 1700's. An enormous granary adjoining the stable stored grain at controlled temperatures to enable both the horses and the residents to survive a long siege. A wheel inside the granary pulled water from an underground stream. Now…for a side a side note about the man...he holds a world record for virility, having fathered 867 children!

Fes - Day 3

We headed out to the city of Fes, named, according to tradition, for the silver and gold 'fas' or pick axe that the king used to outline the boundaries of the new city-a boundary now exceeded any number of times!

2. Tile work around door

1. Handwork detail

We spent a delightful day, roaming around and about and above the old walled media, one of the larger new in Morocco. Our guide, Khalid, wove us through a labyrinth of tiny streets to share some of the treats found inside. We had a chance to visit a Koranic college, a place where students would go for religious studies. Normally tourists cannot enter these religious colleges, but this one had been closed and the decision was made to share the beautiful old structure with the public. It has beautiful woodcarvings and paintings, carved wood and/or plaster, as well as gorgeous tile work. Note, this stuff is all hand made – (picture 1) the plaster carvings (top), the carved woodwork (lower left), the intricate tile pieces (lower center) as well as the lower tile work around the door (picture 2). The hand-craftsmanship of these people is incredible. I will have money with me to buy some of their work next time!

We returned to the weaving streets-probably better described as alleyways with shops and craftsmen at every turn. We enjoyed a visit to a carpet dealer who had some gorgeous rugs but very expensive. Little did we know that we'd find another salesman with prices that doubled his! Would be something else to plan for on a return trip... The tannery, for some reason, was not my cup of tea. From my way of thinking, it was good that they were resurfacing and repairing their vats – I avoided the smell of cooked hides. I will say, though, that they used natural colors on their hides, colors produced by various plants and flowers, rather than using artificial dyes. We also passed through various metal works areas including tin and copper. The tin / other metals structures might be simple for candles or very ornate for lighting in the home.

We headed from the actual medina out to a pottery school to see how they make the various pottery and tile pieces. Pots are thrown the same old way but the tiny stars, hearts, squares, odd shaped pieces...they are created by HAND. Yes, the man sat there with a rather sharp, large chisel and hand crafted each and every one of them. Those series that might be trees, fitting in next to each other, one up, one down, perfectly matched? Yeah, by hand! Incredible to watch the fine work. 

Practice sample of pieces
fitting together

Fountains have each tile individually placed in a negative mold...if you lose track, it would be hard to figure it out because all you can see is the random backs, no hint of the colors! They even decorate the underside of the tile tables...another thing to budget for if we return! The attention to detail is incredible. Do you get the idea that I’m impressed with their work?

Cassablanca - Day 1

Sitting in the queue on the runway in Spain...waiting. The captain has just received the go and the ponderous plane begins rapidly accelerating. Suddenly the brakes are applied, the plane fishtails, the passengers perk up, look around, sniff the air...wondering what in the world is going on! An announcement...a door was not properly closed/locked and the alarm light had come on. Heart rates returned to normal as we circled back to the terminal, the door sealed correctly and finally taking off.

So much for our fist day of touring Casablanca. To top it off, our 2:00 pm flight was cancelled and we were bumped to 7:50...and all that much later with the double take-off.  Ali, our driver, was waiting patiently for us and welcomed us to Morocco. Little did we know at the time that this was a really long wait for him…his wife of 20 days was at home in Marrakech, and he was going to be gone for a week before we arrived in his fair city!

The small green section moves

Casablanca is the home of the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world. This, we believe is another of member of the adjective / other qualifiers dependent largeness club. This one does have the world’s largest/tallest minaret, as measured from its deep underground base.

That said, however, it is absolutely stunning. It is perched on a promontory, looking out towards the Atlantic Ocean. I'd love to have gotten a view from a boat! The vast majority of the materials for construction came from Morocco, importing only those things not available in the country. They have stunning chandeliers for light made with Venetian glass. The capitals mounted on the marble columns are all hand carved wooden structures - primarily out of sandalwood. The women's area is in a raised sandalwood structure with ornate carvings all around -much more ornate than we have seen in other places.

View of the movable section from inside

There's one feature that was totally new for us. They have a section of the roof that they can open up to allow sunlight flowing in. It's a huge portion of the roof that is pulled back, allowing the center waterway to be bathed in the light. (If you look at the picture, the smaller green roof behind the minaret is the section that opens) Water is an important part of purification rituals and it runs through channels down the center of the mosque. It must be stunning when the water is flowing, the roof is open and the sun is shining through.

 

Special rooms are set under the mosque for the ritual cleaning required before prayer time. The room is huge, to accommodate the thousands of people who come for prayer – it’s particularly busy on numerous holy days, particularly during Ramadan. The room has many small floral pedaled water fountains that can be used by a number of people at once. They’ve gone one step further with this mosque. They’ve added a non-traditional feature, the hammam, to the underground area of the mosque. A hammam is a traditional bath that is publicly used by people all the time, but this particular one was built to show tourists...it's never been used!

 

The colors are quite vibrant here, both inside and out, with many repeated green medallions mixed its other Arabic patterns of various shades of blues and greens. Vibrant in some areas, with subtle shading in others, offset with the woods (sandalwood frequently) and marble - very effective.  Our mosques in Doha tend to be sand colored externally, with decorative details inside, apparently because the sand grinds on everything and washes out other colors.

Chefchaouen - Day 2

Chefchaouen is a small village, nestled in the foothills south of Tangier. The most distinctive element of this particular village is...blue! The walls, the steps, the passageways, the shops...all are washed in blue. In fact, they are constantly washed in blue…we even got to see some of the village ladies adding another layer of blue to a plaza area; apparently they do it frequently to keep the color fresh and vibrant!

 

The Kasbah, or fortress, was built in the 18th century, to fight the Portuguese invaders. It has now been restored as a museum with glimpses of its history as well as views of the small gardens as well as the surrounding area from the one remaining tower. The village seems to have grown from this beginning and it is now prominent in the village walled medina, or shopping area. We had a chance to roam the streets and check out the goods they had for sale. You must make note on how narrow the streets are…and everywhere we went, cars and motorbikes were sure to be in the mix.

 

The villa we stayed in was fabulously picturesque, almost hobbit sized (we could easily touch the ceilings). The stairs, the halls, banisters, sitting areas, gardens; everything had a uniqueness to it from the urns scattered seemingly randomly to the lights adding their dancing shadows. Delightful!

 

Apparently, there are a lot of hikes available in the area - up the the "horns" that the village is named for, along the old city wall, however, we were not there long enough to take advantage of any hikes up in the mountains. We did walk down the river that weaves through the upper part of the town and across from our villa. Here we found a number of concrete basins, complete with concrete scrub boards where people still come to do their washing, gossip, and spread drying items on the bushes. There were even people out in the morning, washing, and stomping on, their  clothes. There were also numerous tile art pieces that decorated the walk from time to time. Little did we know at the time what a large craft that is here in Morocco!

One last picture from the garden. The moon was so brilliant in the sky...I just couldn't resist...