Marrakesh

Let me tell you about my trip to Marrakesh.....this i did while being night shift....it is a 12 hour tour (with the ship's shore excursion)....and the trip there is 3.5hrs.....in a bus.....oh well...good time to sleep.....Marrakesh is the fourth largest city in Morocco (after Casablanca, Fes and Rabat). Let me give you a little history about Marrakesh.....

Marrakesh is the most important of Morocco's four former imperial cities. Marrakesh is inhabitated by Berber farmers from the Neolithic times, founded in 1062, many of the mosques have an Andalusian influence. It comprises of an old fortefied city packed with vendors and their stalls (Medina) bordered by modern neighbourhoods. The heart of the Medina is Jnaa el-Fna sqaure...

Jnaa el-Fna square

Stalls at the sqaure

Near the sqaure is the kutubiyah mosque with its 77m minarets, this is the largest mosque in Marrakesh. It ispired the tower of the Giralda in Seville, Spain as well as the Hassan II tower in Rabat.

Kutubiya mosque

Did you know...Marrakesh is also known as the Red City as there are various buildings constructed with red sandstone....the ramparts of Marrakesh stretch for 19km around the Medina and stand up to 5.8m high, have 19 gates..one of the main gates, Bab Aganaou was built in the 12th century during the Almohad dynasty. The Berber name Agnaou refers to people of sub-saharan african origin. Below see a pic of the Bab Aganaou gate

Bab Aganaou

We also had some traditional lunch...of course tajine and couscous was involved....starters were various salads...typical for Morocco..beetroot salad, coleslaw salad, carrot salad, cucumber salad, aubergine puree, rice and potatoes....and then mains was a chicken tajine with couscous and veggies....it was ok....i would definitely not run for it....in my opinion it killed the hunger but nothing special, there was also the typical Moroccan bread called Khobz....that was quite nice..dessert, Moroccan mint tea as well as tangarines.....and not to forget....a belly dancing performance...again...a typical thing....also, before eating, they brought a bowl of water as well as a pouring jar and towels....one has to wash the hands at the table before eating cause traditionally Moroccan's eat with their hands.....unfortunately when i took the pic of the main course the lid of the tajine had already been taken off....

Various starter salad

Khobz salad

Tajine

Entrance to restaurant

After lunch..time to visit the palace called El Bahia..it was built for Ahmed Ibn Moussa (aka Ba Ahmed) between 1894-1900 in the Alawi style that was popular at the time. Bahia means palace of the beautiful. It has 160 rooms, the most imprtant room is the guest room followed by the main bedroom. The main bedroom normally has 2 beds and a fountain. The reason for having 2 beds is mainly, if the wife wants privacy and no intimacy, she will go to the second bed, the fountain is to cover any noises during intimacy. All houses have three main elemenst to them...wood on the roof, beautifully carved wooden architecture, then plaster (the walls) and lastly mosaic for the floors. There are paintings on the plaster walls, however, no drawings contain people or animals, it is geometric or florels. There is a lot of marble in the palace and this marble is all from Italy. Morocco and Italy were trading sugar for marble. Here are some pics....

Courtyard...beautifull carvings

Another courtyard, beautiful mosaic

Yes, the palace was nice, but not oh my word wow....well at least that is my opinion. The woodwork however, on the ceiling and the doors, that i found wow....amazing how it was all hand carved and all from large pieces....after that it was time to visit the Saadian tombs, these tombs were hidden and were only rediscovered in 1917. The site is the burial for mainl the Mansour family and the main tomb is the tomb from Sultan Ahmed el Mansour, it has twelve columns and they have used Italian Carrara marble....as per our guide we were very lucky cause there was no line to see the grave, normally there is a very long line...up to an hour long, in my opinion the graves were nice...but again nothing breathtaking overly wow...i was actually a little disappointed...but all in all...still nice to have seen it....

Sultan ahmec al Mansour tomb

Another tomb and on the right, our guide

Of course i should not forget...Morocco is famous for Argan oil....the argan tree is actually endemic to Morocco. Argan food oil can be used for dipping bread, on couscous or for salads while unroasted argan oil has cosmetic properties. It is good for skin as well as hair....so we went to a semi-pharmacy demonstration where they showed us some traditional Moroccan products like Argan oils, cosmetics as well as some spices and teas....and yes....i did buy Moroccan green mint tea as well as some Argan oil and facial cream.....i actually found that quite interesting and we were allowed to test everything which i thought was great....

Inside the semi-pharmacy

So all in all i think we saw quite a bit of Marrakesh, i wish the tour would have given us some more time at the Jnaa el-Fna square, just to look around a little...they sell very similar things to Turkish bazaars...like pashiminas, spices, olives also some tajines and clothes....and the main square was full of food and juice stalls...fresh orange and promegranate juice (similar to Turkey and Israel)....some food stalls for me were a bit too much....some goat or sheep heads...not sure....not quite my type of food...

Not my food stall

The sqaure was our last stop...after that it was dark...night....around 18:00....time to drive back to the ship and time to sleep before night shift....the whole trip was long...but yes...i am glad that i went and saw it.....we got back around 22:00 and my night shift started at 23:30....time to have some dinner...and the best surprise...when i got back...kim had ordered room service for me...parma ham, various cheeses and crackers...i was in heaven...good way to end a long day.....

 

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