Morocco is an exotic melting pot. The mix of African, Berber, Arabian, and French cultures make for an amazing history. Each city & village we visited on tour had a story to tell and images to share. Overwhelming and dizzying medieval Kasbahs in every city centre contrast the vast array of pristine natural landscapes. Our next stop on our trip was the city of Meknes and the Roman ruins in Volubilis.
Daniel
For photos click here: Meknes and Volubilis
 |  |
| Meknes | Volubilis |
Meknés
Before exploring the Meknes city centre or medina, we stopped in a local shop for some fresh OJ (highly recommended). We soon realized what fresh really means – and for about 20 cents it was especially delicious. We also sat down in the same one-table shop and were eagerly served some creamy yogurt (we think another French influence) by the shop owner’s young assistant.
During some free time, we encountered another beautiful example of Moroccan gate architecture. Meknes was a vibrant city with an even more vibrant Kasbah. In this case, the medina is home to a sprawling street market that is tightly packed into the alleyways. Seb, smartly led us around the market where we found luscious olive displays, chicken vendors where they literally weighed, killed, and de-feathered your chicken (not for the faint of heart). Sometimes, we needed to be careful about taking photos – so as not to offend people. However, the men working the chicken shop really enjoyed being behind the camera. As we rambled on, we encountered iron work shops, tempting pastry vendors, fruit vendors, and even raw wool sellers. As promised by Seb, we finally found the “camel meat guy”. We paid for a choice cut of meat and watched the camel guy (who, in my opinion, had the best shop set-up in all of the medina) grind and season the meat to perfection. We then took our goods to a nearby shop where the owner runs a public grill – for a small fee he cooked up a lunchtime feast. Within 15 minutes we were packed into a hidden room across the alley from the grill, around a table laid out with tasty camel burgers and hot mint tea.
The market was also proudly local, as most of the business was not done for tourists. Rather we were just some visitors passing through with a fantastic chance to experience their daily routine. Although, there were other tourists wandering around Meknes – many of the people inside the medina were there to do business.
Another random highlight, global brands gone mad…it’s always fun to find brands that you recognize in far away lands. It’s even more entertaining to find “similar” knock-offs in unexpected places – like a local street vendor in Meknes.
Here is a video of the metalworkers in the souk (market).
Volubilis
An ongoing theme throughout our travels has been the vast Roman influence. No big surprise, they were big in Morocco too. This site was highlighted by intact aqueducts, beautiful wild flowers, towering columns, intricate mosaic floors, and tons of Roman olive presses. Volubilis is believed to have been a Roman industrial hub in Africa. The remarkable ruins revealed signs of a complex olive industry that probably explained the importance of Volubilis in Roman times.
To provide some scale, many of the standing columns have become the nesting grounds of storks. Their nests are enormous but only look like small caps atop the soaring columns.
The other noteworthy item was a large carved stone placed at the center of a small room. The carving on the top of the stone is clearly…well, look at our photos and you can decide for yourself. Explanations: The original men’s room sign, or a sign of the hedonistic Roman culture & lifestyle.
No comments:
Post a Comment