We started our day touring Rabat, Morocco’s capital city, by visiting the shrine of Mohammed V, the grandfather of Morocco’s current king, Mohammed IV. It was pretty spectacular. They refer to this tomb as a mini Taj Mahal. From a distance, it looks kind of golden because of the angle of the sun, but close up, the marble is clearly white.
This fountain was off to the side of the shrine and is made from a different kind of stone.
This is the inside of the shrine. King Mohammed V’s sarcophagus is in the center of the room. The man in white in the upper right portion of the photo was singing something in Arabic. I’m guessing it was some sort of prayers.
The domed ceiling.
Across from the shrine stands the Hassan Tower. It was part of a mosque that was leveled in a massive earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1765. Yes, an earthquake in Portugal shook hard enough to level many structures all the way in Morocco!
There are guards on horseback at the gates to the shrine and you are allowed to have you picture taken near them so long as you’re appropriately dressed - no knees, shoulders or cleavage showing. Frank was a rebel and got his photo taken despite his “indecent exposure,” lol!
Then we were off to tour a Kasbah. A kasbah is a fortress/fortified city. This one was built centuries ago by the Jews and Muslims that were ejected from the Andelusian region of Spain by the king of Spain starting in 1492. It is the only kasbah in Morocco that sits alongside the ocean and the people who built it and settled here actually turned to piracy as a form of revenge against the king of Spain, thus the need for a fortress to protect themselves and to use as a place to launch their attacks from. This is the outside of the kasbah, the main entrance gate.
This is the inside of the kasbah. There are tons of narrow, winding alleyways. It’s one of those places that you’d better be familiar with and know exactly how to navigate or you could disappear in this maze and not be found for hours. These doorways are the entrances to people’s homes.
I was not expecting it to look like this inside, based on what it looks like on the outside. It was really quite pretty and charming with all of the blue and white walls and doors. Our guide told us that there are several theories as to where the blue and white color combination comes from. The main theory is that the blue was first used by the Jewish people who originally settled here, and although there are no Jewish people living here now, the people who do live here have chosen to preserve the authenticity of the place by continuing on with the blue. Thank goodness, because it is beautiful and feels cool and fresh in the hot Moroccan sun. The second theory is that the blue color helps keep away the evil eye, which apparently is a big concern for Muslims and Hindus alike, as anti-evil-eye charms are everywhere in both Morocco and India. The third theory on the blue-and-white color combo is that it repels flies and mosquitos. Maybe it does work on mosquitoes because I never saw one in the kasbah, but I sure know that it wasn’t working on the flies. They were EVERYWHERE we went, in the kasbah, out of the kasbah, in the bus, etc. Apparently flies are not respecters of color theory.
This is the view of the ocean from the back of the kasbah.
We had a brief stop for pastries and mint tea at a Moorish cafe inside the kasbah. The pastries looked yummy.
And there were a few hucksters selling pottery and Moroccan shoes. Those conical pots are tagines and are used for making a yummy Moroccan stew-like dish called tagine (after the pot) that contains meat and veggies, or sometimes just veggies.
There was a very pretty Andalusian garden that we walked through on our way out of the kasbah.
And then we came upon this gentleman. This guy was playing, singing and spinning his tassel like no tomorrow. No kasbah visit would be complete without a “rockin’ the kasbah” moment!
After the kasbah, we made our way to the ancient Roman ruins of Chellah (pronounced “shellah”). They were mostly destroyed in the 1700s by that huge earthquake that was centered in Lisbon, Portugal, but the ruins were still beautiful. I have included photos of what little was left standing and left out the photos of the rubble.
Do you notice those twigs and branches on the tops of the tower and walls? Any guesses as to what those are? They are stork nests. Huge stork nests. The largest stork nests can weigh up to 800 kilos, which is over 1700 pounds!!! Who knew??? I guess the storks have to have some place to store all the babies before they deliver them, lol!
All in all, it was a pretty interesting first day in Morocco. The next day we were off to Fez bright and early in the morning and we explored some much more extensive Roman ruins along the way. More on that in my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment