Marrakech Day 4: Tour of the Medina
Our breakfast at the riad was home-cooked and included muffins that can be slathered with butter or orange marmalade. French crepes with citrus jam, delicious house-made yogurt and freshly squeezed orange juice.Monique hired a local guide to help us navigate the alleyways, which were thronging with local folk and donkeys laden with wares for the market, and tourists. We visited the Medersa Ben Youssef, with its intricate zellij tile work on the walls and its gibs or stucco plasterwork in carved geometric designs.
The central courtyard was in rows of arches and pillars. Even the windows overlooking the courtyard were arched, and framed tourists taking pictures of each other. A small prayer hall on the ground floor was for busy students who had no time to go to the grand mosques, and had pillars decorated with Islamic calligraphy.
On the second floor were cubicles resembling monastic cells and surrounding sunlit common areas on three sides, accessible by corridors on either side.
Wong's winning entry to the photography competition: Lester in one of the student rooms
Some of the cubicles had wooden slats on the walls so students could climb up to the sleeping quarters on the higher floors. Some of the rooms up front had exhibits of the paraphernalia used by students in the past. The room used by city scholars had brass candlesticks, a formal writing desk and stove, while the country pupil had clay pots and floor mats. As many as 900 students from Muslim countries all over the world studied here at one time.
We passed the marketplace, which we later would became intimately familiar with, rather quickly as we needed to reach the Saadien Tombs before the midday sun signaled the closing down of the city. We rushed through souks selling everything even remotely tied to Morocco, from carpets and water pipes to slippers, wood carvings, tagine pots and clothing.
We did see the famed Djemaa el-Fna, the open market at the center of the medina that is the heartbeat of Marrakech. People were slowly congregating, and we spied an over-eager snake charmer with his unfortunate cobra, but the square apparently comes to life later in the afternoon.
The Saadien Tombs are a 16th century burial ground for 166 Saadiens, including its creator Sultan Ahmed el Mansour or the Golden One. Even his servants had their own colorful zellij graves, albeit outside among the gardens. The central mausoleum or Hall of Twelve Columns, contains the tombs of Ahmed el Mansour and his family; It was a lavishly ornate building with a vaulted roof, carved cedar doors and moucharabra which are wooden screens traditionally used to separate the sexes.
We braved the hot sun to walk past the Koutoubia Mosque, a towering Moorish structure built by Yacoub el Mansour in the early 12th century and which became the model for both the Hassan Tower in Rabat and the Giralda in Sevilla. The mosque takes its name from the Arabic work koutoub or book, because there was once a booksellers’ market close by. The minaret is topped by 3 golden orbs which, according to local folklore, were offered by the mother of Saadien sultan Ahmed el Mansour Edhabi as penance for fasting days she missed during Ramadan. Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.
Everytime you ask the guide to snap pictures, the entire family is there but the Mosque disappears!
Our next stop was the Riad des Epices, where we learned about the various Moroccan spices and their uses. For example, Ras el Hanout is a mixture of 35 spices used to flavor meat and vegetables, but not fish. Four spices, comprised of caradamom, nutmeg, ginger and coriander are used for fish and seafood. They also had argan oil, face creams, rosewater and jasmine essences and amber cubes. Sanouge or nargella are block seeds that can be wrapped in cheesecloth and rubbed vigorously then inhaled. They provide a pungent whiff to clear the nostrils and prevent snoring. We were hoping to purchase a kilo for Allan. Our white room was filled from top to bottom with clean jars or colorful spices. It was a little sterile, but we stayed because it was a cool respite from the sun.
We stopped by another carpet shop where Monique, Joliot and Allan took turns at the loom. They brought out reams of carpets but none were as elaborate as the ones we saw in Rissani, yet they were 3x more expensive. We also went to the terrace of a furniture store for a view of the rooftops of the city.
The Musee de Marrakech had some small exhibits of pottery, rugs and jewelry, but what people come to see is the central atrium, a tiled courtyard with a huge lamp reminiscent of a descending flying saucer. As guitar music pumped through the speakers, we went running around vying for the best photograph of the day.
The winner: me! For a picture of Bei in meditation :)
The Toukba Almoravid was beside the museum and in the city’s oldest monument and only intact Almoravid architecture left in Morocco. It was once used for absolutions before prayer in the adjacent Ali Ben Youssef Mosque and had a system of toilets, showers, even faucets for drinking water.
The sun was not too hot so we retired to our sanctuary. After 5, when the heat was not as oppressive, we navigated the souks to get to the Djemaa el-Fna, once a meeting place for farmers and tradesmen, now surrounded by bazaars, mosques and terraced cafes with prized views of the square.
As the sun started setting and the air became cooler, the people of the night emerged. Gnaoua musicians filed the square with song while acrobats made wild somersaults. Henna women waited to make their swirling marriage markings. Fortune-tellers revealed mottled fortunes, apothecaries sold colorful spices, and bush dentists with Berber molars piled high on their tables extracted teeth. Best of all, old men told stories to each other the ancient way, on a magic carpet around a gas lamp.
The Djemaa el-Fna used to have a more gruesome purpose, to accommodate the public viewing of the severed heads of sinners and Christians hung on stakes. Djemaa means meeting place and el-Fna means the end, thus the name it bears is meeting place at the end of the world.
We ate some sweet nut and pistachio nougat,
followed by tasty calf brain.
Actually, truthfully, not so tasty. Among the severed calf heads, our butcher srved the tiny whitish grey brains over a tangy citron sauce with bread. It tasted like slimy tofu. We also had fresh orange juice at one of the fruit stands. Joliot even snapped a picture with the stall-owner before Monique fought with him for short-changing us.
We visited tiny shops selling magical Moroccan lanterns, tagine pots, hands of Fatima to ward off the evil eye, and water pipes. Dried fruit and nuts, and spice stalls added local color.
Finally! We find Yotchi's prized ostrich egg
Dinner was on the middle terrace of Café Argana on 1,2 pl Djemaa el-Fna, where we had an enviable window seat to the unfolding human spectacle below. We had mechouia or roast lamb, tagine lapin avec raisins secs et ouignons (rabbit tagine with dried raisins and onions), brouchettes de veau (veal) et poulet (chicken), and riz (rice) avec champignons et poireaux (leeks).
As we ate, the stars came out and gas lamps turned on over the stalls as if to mimic the heavenly lights. Suddenly the market place was glowing brighter than the deep blue night sky. Lamps swung in the wind, seemingly dancing to the haunting Gnaoua music. From our vantage point, we could see the groups of people congregating around various attractions, making circles like whirlpools in an ocean of mankind.
In the center were singers with guitars, transvestite belly dancers, and dessicated storytellers. It was an extraordinary experience other than the occasional attempt at pickpocketing and the aggressive vendors, one of which called Wong his sweet chicken and offered to trade 5000 camels for her.
We had ice cream on the ground floor of the restaurant, trying out exotic flavors like fig, avocado, pistachio, raspberry and peach. We also tried gateau des epices or spiced chocolate cake. Finally, we were ready to head back, which was an adventure in itself once the stalls started closing and the familiar landmarks vanished in the dark.
Back at our riad, with the air-conditioning at full power, we lounged around on pillows while comparing pictures. We even decided on holding a photography contest, something that Monique never foresaw would cause her a multitude of headaches once she started culling pictures and would find five shots of the same scene.
For more pictures, click here.
posted by moan @ 6:27 AM
2 Comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Love the pictures of the architecture, its all so detailed!
marrakech tours
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home