After my first solo trip in 2016, the travel flame was ignited and I decided two African nations would be next: Morocco and Egypt.
In May of 2017 I landed in Marrakech. The famed city I had seen on documentaries, and recognized as the backdrop in countless movies was fabulous. The city known for the hustle and bustle of its Medina, and considered one of the food capitals of the world.
Marrakesh
Nothing can quite prepare you for the “busyness” of Marrakech. Imagine a small alley with “traffic” coming both ways at top speed. Now imagine the traffic I’m speaking of is not cars, but narrow trucks (built specifically to traverse tight passageways), mule drawn carriages loaded with produce or lumber, and people on mopeds and bicycles. Next, add to the mix small children darting into and out of doorways, dogs scrounging around for their next meal, the random goat chewing at everything in site, food vendors hawking their wares, bakers and rugmakers hawking their wares. you get the point, right? NOW, add the distinct smells that go along with all that activity. The smell of the animals, garbage in receptacles, street food and spices all culminating in a pungent, miasmic yet odiferous assault on your senses.
My first day I did what I always do upon arrival in a new city – the obligatory city tour. As I arrived late the previous evening, I strolled around and took in the beauty of my riad. A riad, which means garden in Arabic, is a house typically built for a multi-generational family. Riads are always built around a courtyard or garden. Many of these courtyards feature fruit trees, particularly orange so you will find fresh squeezed juice on every corner.
Saadian Tombs
Our first stop was the Saadian Tombs which Sultan Ahmed Al Mansour Ed Dahbi constructed. After the “golden king” built Badia Palace in the 16th century, he focused on transforming an existing necropolis. He created a lavish tomb complex. featuring Italian Carrara marble and gilding honeycomb muqarnas (decorative plasterwork) with pure gold.
After Al Mansour died in 1603, Alaouite Sultan Moulay Ismail sealed up the Saadian Tombs. An effort to keep his predecessors out of sight and out of mind. The mausoleums lay totally forgotten until aerial photography exposed them in 1917. The Service des Beaux-Arts, Antiquités et Monuments historiques (“Service of Fine Arts, Antiquities, and Historic Monuments”) of Morocco discovered the tombs and began to restore them. Next up was Bahia Palace, which dates back to the 19th century and showcases rooms decorated with stunning stuccos, paintings and mosaics set around gardens. The name of the Bahia Palace means “brilliance” in Arabic. I didn’t take many photos of the palace as it was super crowded the day I visited and I would have had more strangers than architecture in my shots.
Ben Youssef Madrasa
Ben Youssef Madrasa was our next stop. The madrasa is named after the adjacent mosque, which was originally the main mosque of the city. The current building was constructed by the Saadian Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib (reign 1557-1574 AD). Sultan Ghalib was a prolific builder during his reign and the building was completed around 1564-65 AD. Historically, madrasas have served as a center for learning, worship and community interaction. In addition to instruction on the Quran, Islamic schools often taught a wide variety of subjects, including literature, science and history. The Ben Youssef Madrasa, in fulfilling these functions, was also one of the largest theological colleges in northern Africa, reportedly able to accommodate upwards of 800 students.
The Medina
Founded in 1070–72 by the Almoravids and Marrakesh, the Medina remained a political, economic and cultural center for many years. with its influence being felt throughout the western Muslim world, from North Africa to Andalusia. The Medina houses several impressive monuments dating from that period: the Koutoubia Mosque, the Kasbah, the ornamental doors and gardens. Later architectural jewels include the Badia Palace, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs and Jamaa el-Fna, a veritable open-air theatre.
Hammam bath houses and spice and textile souks line the maze of cobblestoned lanes in the Medina, which occupies Marrakesh’s original fortified citadel. At night, Jamaa el-Fna square teems with snake charmers, folk dancers, and street food vendors. I can honestly tell you, I am a born and bred New Yorker with a great sense of direction and the first and only time I have ever gotten lost was leaving the square at dusk and trying to find my way back to my riad. What was hysterical after I finally made it to the riad (with the help of a local young man), is that I was literally one lane over from where I needed to be!
Jardin Majorelle
After my “big night out” on the square, Majorelle Garden was on the agenda the following day. Jardin Majorelle-Yves Saint Laurent Mansion was one of the lighthearted highlights of my stay in Marrakech. Created over the course of forty years by French Orientalist painter and plant collector, Jacques Majorelle, the garden is enclosed by outer walls, and consists of a labyrinth of crisscrossing alleys featuring boldly-colored buildings constructed in both Art Deco and Moorish styles.
Majorelle conceived of this large and luxuriant garden as a sanctuary and botanical ‘laboratory’. In 1922, he began planting it with exotic botanical specimens he had collected throughout his travels around the world. In 1980, rebel fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner in life and business, French industrialist, collector and philanthropist, Pierre Bergé, purchased the Jardin Majorelle to save it from destruction at the hands of hotel developers. The new owners opted to live in the villa on the property and renamed it Villa Oasis.
Unfortunately, the mansion was off-limits to visitors. I can only imagine how mind blowingly beautiful the interior must be (you can view pictures of the rooms online). The fabulous shade of blue you see on the buildings above is called “Majorelle blue”. You know someone is a designer extraordinaire when their former residence is absolutely drenched in a color named after their property.
The Atlas Mountains
The next two days included an overnight desert camel trek. I joined a small group tour that departed Marrakech in the morning and returned the evening of the next day. We had one of the most picturesque backdrops for this road trip – the Atlas Mountains framed by lush green valleys. The Atlas range, which extends approximately 1,500 miles across northwestern Africa (spanning Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) and separates the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines from the Sahara Desert.
Ait-Ben-Haddou
En route, we visited the World Heritage Site, Ait-Ben-Haddou Kasbah. Ait Benhaddou was one of many trading posts on the commercial route linking ancient Sudan to Marrakesh by the Dra Valley and the Tizi-n’Telouet Pass. A ksar is defined as a collective of dwellings inside defensive walls. Some of the homes are modest while others resemble small castles. The community areas of the ksar include a mosque, a public square, grain threshing areas outside the ramparts, a fortification and a loft at the top of the village, an caravanserai, two cemeteries (Muslim and Jewish) and the Sanctuary of the Saint Sidi Ali or Amer.
Essauoira
Essauoira (formerly known as Mogador), is a port city on the Atlantic coast in the western region of Marrakesh-Safi. It is just shy of three hours drive away from Marrakech. Its medina is protected by 18th-century seafront ramparts called the Skala de la Kasbah, which were designed by European engineers. Old brass cannons line the walls, and there are ocean views. Strong “Alizé” trade winds make the crescent shaped beach a popular spot for watersports, boardwalk dining and people watching.
En route to Essauoira we encountered the gravity defying goats in trees. Apparently, goats REALLY like argan nuts and will climb to get them. The animals climb the argan trees and eat the fruits, swallowing the core which looks a bit like an almond. The seed nut passes through the goat’s digestive system and ends up in its droppings, where it’s then collected. To get at the oil inside, it is cracked open with a stone then the seeds are ground. The resulting cold-pressed oil is then used for cooking and as a skin moisturizer. Most argan oil production in Morocco is carried out by small-scale cooperatives, employing women.
Marrakesh to Fez
The next day was a “real” adventure. I decided I wanted to see the countryside and the best way to do that was by taking the train from Marrakech to Fez (7-hour ride). Let me tell you THAT was an experience. First of all, the looks I got standing on the platform waiting for the train were palpable. They must have all been wondering what this “westerner” was doing in a space clearly denoted for locals. It wasn’t a bad experience overall, however, not one I care to repeat.
The saving grace of the day was the riad that was waiting for me in Fez – it was absolutely divine. At Riad Le Caliph each room was named after a gemstone and decorated throughout in that color. My room was the Amethyst room and everything in the room was purple or a color that complimented purple and in true riad fashion overlooked a courtyard filled with orange trees.
Chefchaouen
The next day I rose early to head to the instagram famous “blue city”. Chefchaouen. Nestled in the foothills of the Rif Mountains with the mountain of Jebel el-Kelaa behind it and Jebel Tisouka nearby, Chaouen, as the city is called by locals, is a city of steep, narrow streets adorned with pots of colorful flowers and filled with vendors selling local rugs and leather. Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 after an attack by the Portuguese led to the area becoming a haven for refugees. The Ghomaras (a group of northern Moroccan tribes), Moriscos (a group of Muslim descent), and Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal now called this space home.
The History
As the threat of the Portuguese slowly diminished, a medina began to appear around the old fortress. The city prospered on the Fez-Tetouan trade route, and the population expanded as even more Muslim and Jewish refugees arrived, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. The city was a closed town to Christians and most Europeans until the early 1900s. Indeed, there are only three European travelers on record as sneaking into the city before then. The first was French explorer Charles Foucauld in 1883, who gained access while pretending to be a rabbi. Another was the English journalist, Walter Harris, who in 1889 disguised himself as a Moorish merchant from Fez, and rode in on a donkey from Tangier, later writing that it was “an utter impossibility for a Christian” to visit the city. The third was a missionary, called William Summer who proved Harris’ point – by being poisoned to death.
It is, however, unlikely that any of these travelers ever saw the marvelous blue streets of Chefchaouen. You see, they weren’t blue back then..at least not universally. It wasn’t until the city was taken by the Spanish in 1920 that the doors to the city opened to anyone and everyone – and the shades of blue followed. The most popular theory is that after World War II, when the Jewish community in the area grew as people fled Nazi persecution, blue was painted on the walls, floors and steps as a religious practice, to represent the color of the sky and connect the city to heaven and God. Other theories say that the walls were painted to keep mosquitos away or reduce heat in the summer. Regardless of the reason it started, the residents have continued to paint the walls year after year making it a photographer’s dream.
Volubilis
Next was Volubilis, a partly excavated Berber-Roman city situated near the city of Meknes. It is believed this may have been the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania from the time of King Juba II. It grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD onward. Volubilis gained a number of major public buildings in the 2nd century, including a basilica, temple and triumphal arch. Its prosperity, which was derived principally from olive growing, prompted the construction of many fine town-houses with large mosaic floors.
The History
Approximately 285, the city fell to local tribes, and was never retaken by Rome. Its remoteness and indefensible location rendered the territory undesirable. It continued to be inhabited for at least another 700 years, first as a Latinized Christian community, then as an early Islamic settlement. In the late 8th century, it, became the seat of Idris ibn Abdallah, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty of Morocco. By the 11th century, Volubilis had been abandoned after the seat of power was relocated to Fes.
The ruins remained substantially intact until they were devastated by an earthquake in the mid-18th century. Subsequent looting by Moroccan rulers seeking stone for building projects in Meknes caused further damage. It was not until the latter part of the 19th century that the site was definitively identified as that of the ancient city of Volubilis. During and after the period of French rule over Morocco, about half of the site was excavated. Numerous remarkably well preserved mosaics were unearthed while some of the more prominent public buildings and high-status houses were restored or reconstructed. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed for being “an exceptionally well preserved example of a large Roman colonial town on the fringes of the Empire.” After visiting the ruins, we then visited The Sahrij Swani (water basin) which featured a promenade dotted with palm trees.
Casablanca
The next day would be my final excursion – the three hour train ride from Fes to Casablanca. As you can see from the photo I took from Kenzi Tower, Casablanca is a beautiful waterfront city.