It's work, work, pay the rent, money and my time's spent
Not a minute left for me to be me
Been going like nothing can wait
I gotta get my priorities straight...
Thank you, Kenny Chesney! Les Marocains may not celebrate Thanksgiving but this American school takes off for a four-day weekend, so I bought my first train ticket here, and headed to Meknes. I hated navigating the Moroccan train system website beforehand because it was entirely in French, with no English translation button to click, but I managed just fine. I was dozing and came way too close to missing my stop. I make my way to the youth hostel I had reserved online and...the section where I was to stay was being renovated. Switched to another section, which of course was more expensive (only an extra 5 dirhams, but it was the principle of the matter), was a dump, but it would do, or would it...
Time for some sightseeing! Meknes is a city of approximately one million people in northern Morocco near the Atlas mountains. The views of the surrounding area are tremendous. I took so many photos from so many different perspectives, and none of them really did the job. I am going to cheat (shhh...) and find a good Google pic:
The ancient and modern halves of the city are separated by a dry oued (Arabic: river). With the present city having origins dating back almost a millennium, it was one of four imperial capitals when Moulay Ismail became Sultanate of Morocco about four hundred years ago. He was a real character. Enough said about him, for now...
"Taxi driver - take me to the medina! Step on it, and there is an extra dirham in it for you!" Actually, there is no need to tell these guys to drive dangerously, and they would sell their grandmother for an extra dirham. Anyway, first, a picture of Bab Mansour, the most famous monumental gate (Arabic: bab) built into the many miles of defensive walls:
When Moulay Ismail asked Monsieur Mansour if he could do better, he said yes, and for that he was executed.
Then, I turned around to take a picture of Place Hadim, which is the main square of the medina.
I walked toward a small crowd (always smart, right?) and what do I see:
Yes, the man is taunting a cobra. He saw me line up a photo and came over to ask (demand) 5 dirhams to snap a pic. I only happened to have 4 in my pocket at the moment; he wasn't pleased but didn't quibble. If I were him, I would've payed more attention to the cobra - just sayin'...
The medina was very nice. Later, I sauntered toward the rear of the Place and entered Dar (Arabic: house) Jamai, an former palace that is now home to the Museum of Moroccan Arts. It was not the "palace" you would think of when you hear the word; it was lavish, but a little smaller, more intimate. Beautiful design, awesome artifacts, and a lovely garden in the courtyard. Sorry, photos not permitted. This would be come a theme (but I am persistent)...
This is a photo of Habs Qara, Ismail Moulay's underground prison ;)
Or was it? The guide told an incredible tale of 60,000 prisoners, including pirates, Christians, Jews and slaves being tortured. Some people say it's all BS, and that it was just for for storing supplies. It was next to impossible to see of course; the little things protruding from the ground came from UNESCO work (Meknes is a U.N. World Heritage site) and provided what little light there was. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle...
Next, I was off to the 9-hole Meknes Royal Golf Course, where the king is known to do his swing thing now and again. This was a bad thing for me. Why? Well, I took a photo of the striking front gate; here it is:
This course lies within palace grounds surrounded by high fortifications. The flora and fauna are remarkable. I cannot accurately describe how gorgeous this place is; the pair of pictures taken from around a corner while hidden by vegetation cannot hope to do it justice. Golf fans can see legit pix online...
Next came the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. The area about the site was fabulous. Notable are the stables (for 12,000 horses?!) and vast granaries to hold the stores for them. Inside the sanctuary, photos were permitted; non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the tomb itself but can photograph the tomb from the entrance...
Thursday night was wild! I walked the pleasant and entertaining new city (French: ville nouvelle), and found myself walking by a club that I could hear playing cool tunes from outside. Fortunately, I didn't turn into a pumpkin at midnight. Around 3:00 I left and then entered a small cafe to get a little bite. The waiter woke me up at 5 when the place closed. I guess I could've taken a petit taxi back to my room, but the train station would do ok. The security guard woke me up when he was yelling at someone at 7. Glad I didn't pay much for that room...
Early on Friday morning I negotiated with a grand taxi to drive me about 25 km to Moulay Idriss, which is a small city about 2 large hills which is an Islamic holy site. The history of the place is fascinating. Similar rules like at the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail applied to the sacred areas. I leaned inside the small doorway to take a pic of the My. Ismail's tomb:
A photo of the town from a vantage point above:
In the picture above, the green conical roof is of the building that contained the tomb. (The guide said green was the color of Islam and all the green-roofed buildings were the most important ones). Below is a photograph of the only cylindrical minaret in Morocco; and such a design is very highly unusual in the Muslim world. It was added to the ancient madrasa (Arabic: Koranic school).
Next to the very nearby Roman ruins at Volubilis...
Volubilis was built by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C. Today, the remaining ruins are a U.N. World Heritage site. Some pop culture notes: Martin Scorcese filmed some of The Last Temptation of Christ there. More famously, the scene from Patton that references the real-life belief in reincarnation by the general also was filmed there. When the title character drives to ruins at "Carthage" and has some curious dialogue with his compatriots, that's right where I was!
Some of the remains have been identified as the bordello room (even I will decline to include photos of a couple of artifacts within the room; a couple of people from an Italian tour group had no qualms about acting out a scene, if you will, on one of them. A couple of artifacts I will include however are of olive presses, a smaller one operated by hand and a larger one operated by animals:
The vomitorium was another interesting place; people would eat and drink like gluttons then go and purposefully "pray to the porcelain goddess" in this space - YUCK! There were aqueduct-fed public baths and solariums like below:
The themes of the many mosaics uncovered often were drawn from mythology. So many photographs to choose from...one such pic is below; it is a particularly famous one called the Four Seasons, in the House of the Labors of Hercules:
Arches and temples and shops - oh my! Which of the numerous pix do I select...
The trip home wasn't too eventful, if you discount the near riot on the train (had nothing at all to do with me, though I almost got caught in the middle by accident) and a cabbie threatening to call the police on me over a disputed fare (even by Moroccan standards, this was a serious attempted rip-off job). Never dull here...
Liked Meknes an awful lot and would like to go back
Step back, smell the rose
Feel the sand between your toes
Unplug, unwind
Step out in the sunshine...
Not a minute left for me to be me
Been going like nothing can wait
I gotta get my priorities straight...
Thank you, Kenny Chesney! Les Marocains may not celebrate Thanksgiving but this American school takes off for a four-day weekend, so I bought my first train ticket here, and headed to Meknes. I hated navigating the Moroccan train system website beforehand because it was entirely in French, with no English translation button to click, but I managed just fine. I was dozing and came way too close to missing my stop. I make my way to the youth hostel I had reserved online and...the section where I was to stay was being renovated. Switched to another section, which of course was more expensive (only an extra 5 dirhams, but it was the principle of the matter), was a dump, but it would do, or would it...
Time for some sightseeing! Meknes is a city of approximately one million people in northern Morocco near the Atlas mountains. The views of the surrounding area are tremendous. I took so many photos from so many different perspectives, and none of them really did the job. I am going to cheat (shhh...) and find a good Google pic:
The ancient and modern halves of the city are separated by a dry oued (Arabic: river). With the present city having origins dating back almost a millennium, it was one of four imperial capitals when Moulay Ismail became Sultanate of Morocco about four hundred years ago. He was a real character. Enough said about him, for now...
"Taxi driver - take me to the medina! Step on it, and there is an extra dirham in it for you!" Actually, there is no need to tell these guys to drive dangerously, and they would sell their grandmother for an extra dirham. Anyway, first, a picture of Bab Mansour, the most famous monumental gate (Arabic: bab) built into the many miles of defensive walls:
When Moulay Ismail asked Monsieur Mansour if he could do better, he said yes, and for that he was executed.
Then, I turned around to take a picture of Place Hadim, which is the main square of the medina.
I walked toward a small crowd (always smart, right?) and what do I see:
Yes, the man is taunting a cobra. He saw me line up a photo and came over to ask (demand) 5 dirhams to snap a pic. I only happened to have 4 in my pocket at the moment; he wasn't pleased but didn't quibble. If I were him, I would've payed more attention to the cobra - just sayin'...
The medina was very nice. Later, I sauntered toward the rear of the Place and entered Dar (Arabic: house) Jamai, an former palace that is now home to the Museum of Moroccan Arts. It was not the "palace" you would think of when you hear the word; it was lavish, but a little smaller, more intimate. Beautiful design, awesome artifacts, and a lovely garden in the courtyard. Sorry, photos not permitted. This would be come a theme (but I am persistent)...
This is a photo of Habs Qara, Ismail Moulay's underground prison ;)
Or was it? The guide told an incredible tale of 60,000 prisoners, including pirates, Christians, Jews and slaves being tortured. Some people say it's all BS, and that it was just for for storing supplies. It was next to impossible to see of course; the little things protruding from the ground came from UNESCO work (Meknes is a U.N. World Heritage site) and provided what little light there was. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle...
Next, I was off to the 9-hole Meknes Royal Golf Course, where the king is known to do his swing thing now and again. This was a bad thing for me. Why? Well, I took a photo of the striking front gate; here it is:
Then, as I approached the gate, a couple of fine young men in military garb carrying automatic weaponry stopped me and had asked (demanded) that I erase the photo. It seems that was for security purposes. I entered the course and went to the terrace on the cafe to carry out my mission (I was determined to get pix!) but I was followed around by the guy working there. On my way out, my scouting the area on the way to the cafe payed off and I slipped into a blind spot and quickly got these:
This course lies within palace grounds surrounded by high fortifications. The flora and fauna are remarkable. I cannot accurately describe how gorgeous this place is; the pair of pictures taken from around a corner while hidden by vegetation cannot hope to do it justice. Golf fans can see legit pix online...
Next came the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. The area about the site was fabulous. Notable are the stables (for 12,000 horses?!) and vast granaries to hold the stores for them. Inside the sanctuary, photos were permitted; non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the tomb itself but can photograph the tomb from the entrance...
Thursday night was wild! I walked the pleasant and entertaining new city (French: ville nouvelle), and found myself walking by a club that I could hear playing cool tunes from outside. Fortunately, I didn't turn into a pumpkin at midnight. Around 3:00 I left and then entered a small cafe to get a little bite. The waiter woke me up at 5 when the place closed. I guess I could've taken a petit taxi back to my room, but the train station would do ok. The security guard woke me up when he was yelling at someone at 7. Glad I didn't pay much for that room...
Early on Friday morning I negotiated with a grand taxi to drive me about 25 km to Moulay Idriss, which is a small city about 2 large hills which is an Islamic holy site. The history of the place is fascinating. Similar rules like at the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail applied to the sacred areas. I leaned inside the small doorway to take a pic of the My. Ismail's tomb:
A photo of the town from a vantage point above:
In the picture above, the green conical roof is of the building that contained the tomb. (The guide said green was the color of Islam and all the green-roofed buildings were the most important ones). Below is a photograph of the only cylindrical minaret in Morocco; and such a design is very highly unusual in the Muslim world. It was added to the ancient madrasa (Arabic: Koranic school).
Next to the very nearby Roman ruins at Volubilis...
Volubilis was built by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C. Today, the remaining ruins are a U.N. World Heritage site. Some pop culture notes: Martin Scorcese filmed some of The Last Temptation of Christ there. More famously, the scene from Patton that references the real-life belief in reincarnation by the general also was filmed there. When the title character drives to ruins at "Carthage" and has some curious dialogue with his compatriots, that's right where I was!
Some of the remains have been identified as the bordello room (even I will decline to include photos of a couple of artifacts within the room; a couple of people from an Italian tour group had no qualms about acting out a scene, if you will, on one of them. A couple of artifacts I will include however are of olive presses, a smaller one operated by hand and a larger one operated by animals:
The vomitorium was another interesting place; people would eat and drink like gluttons then go and purposefully "pray to the porcelain goddess" in this space - YUCK! There were aqueduct-fed public baths and solariums like below:
The themes of the many mosaics uncovered often were drawn from mythology. So many photographs to choose from...one such pic is below; it is a particularly famous one called the Four Seasons, in the House of the Labors of Hercules:
Arches and temples and shops - oh my! Which of the numerous pix do I select...
The trip home wasn't too eventful, if you discount the near riot on the train (had nothing at all to do with me, though I almost got caught in the middle by accident) and a cabbie threatening to call the police on me over a disputed fare (even by Moroccan standards, this was a serious attempted rip-off job). Never dull here...
Liked Meknes an awful lot and would like to go back
Step back, smell the rose
Feel the sand between your toes
Unplug, unwind
Step out in the sunshine...
No comments:
Post a Comment