Day 5

Today we visited the city of Meknes.  We had a guided tour of the city by John Shoup, Ph.D.  John studied cultural anthropology and is a professor of anthropology at AUI .  He  has been in Morocco since 1996.  John introduced us to the city's early settlements.  Meknes was an important military settlement in the 11th century for the Almoravid dynasty.  Later Meknes became the capital of Moulay Ismail, the founder of the Alawite dynasty late 17th century.   We toured the granary ruins from the 17th century.

We had the opportunity to see a mausoleum.  The building was decorated in the Moorish style with colorful geometric mosaics.  We were instructed to take off our shoes.  Today was the first time we could hear the call to prayer.  Muslims pray five times a day.  The call to prayer is a loud recording to invite the faithful to the mosque.

We were instructed to dress modestly in the city to be respectful of the culture; elbows and knees covered.   As you can see in my photo I wore a long dress.   Though not all tourists were given the same instruction and I was shocked to see many European tourists wearing low cut shirts and short shorts.

After the tour of the mausoleum John brought us to the old medina and to the marche.  The roads through the old medina were very narrow.  The streets were filled with shoppers and merchants and all sorts of unique sights and smells. I could smell mint and chamomile as the most fragrant, though at the same time it smelled sour, like garbage.  The marche in Meknes is like nothing I had ever seen before.  There were clothing and fruit vendors, kitchen wares, a dentist and even iron works.

My impressions:  shopping in the west is done in malls and big box chain stores, shopping in Morocco is more localized and bartering is common.  It's really hot in Morocco, staying covered means you feel even more warm.  I will need to remember to drink more water when I am out in the medina. Massalama!

The Traveling Educator