Bobbe's trip to Morocco, part 4: Meknes

Here is the fourth installment of Bobbe's narrative of her trip to Morocco.

As I said in one of my previous posts, Fez is one of three traditional Moroccan capital cities. Today, I'm going to tell you about Meknes, which is one of the others. Meknes was made the capital of Morocco by a ruler named Moulay Ismail, who reigned from 1672 until 1727. Moulay Ismail was very powerful, but he was also kind of cruel. His patronage transformed the city of Meknes; today, everywhere you go in Meknes, you hear all about Moulay Ismail.

Meknes is surrounded by massive city walls, which were built on the orders of -- who else? -- Moulay Ismail. The city has several gates, which lead into the part of the city where Moulay Ismail and the other important citizens lived. Moulay Ismail was notoriously cruel; according to one legend, to demonstrate his power, he had the city walls "decorated" with the severed heads of 10,000 of his enemies.

Here is a view of the walls of Meknes with the Bab Mansour, one of the largest gates.

Here's a view of the city walls.

The first place I visited in Meknes was the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, where his tomb is located. Like other traditional Islamic sites, it is decorated with abstract patterns made of tile and carvings, not depictions of people or things. As you walk into the mausoleum, you pass through several courtyards, which are supposed to make you feel a sense of calm as you walk through them to get to the tomb. It's actually quite a pleasant place to be buried.

I sit on the windowsill of the tomb of Moulay Ismail in Meknes.

Moulay Ismail is responsible for several of the other great buildings in Meknes as well. Here I am in front of his reception hall, which was where he received foreign ambassadors.

Here I am ready to be received as an ambassador.

In front of the reception hall is Moulay Ismail's parade ground, where he would have all of his troops line up for inspection. Moulay Ismail brought 16,000 slaves from sub-Saharan Africa to serve as his personal guard. He used to like to have them line up in this parade ground so he could inspect them.

You have to imagine the parade ground with 16,000 slave-soldiers.

Do you see all the little air holes poking up from the parade ground? Those holes provide air and light to the crypt below the parade ground. Down there, Moulay Ismail stored a huge amount of grain to feed the people of Meknes.

I'm down inside the crypt.

Like Fez, Meknes is home to a beautiful traditional Islamic school. The basic layout of this school is the same as the one in Fez: there's a central courtyard with a fountain, and around the courtyard there are places for the teachers to teach while their students gather around them.

Here is the main courtyard of the traditional school in Meknes.

I got to go to the second floor of the school in Meknes, where I could see the dorms that the students used to use. Look how small these rooms are! Would you want to live in a room this small?

I'm in the doorway of one of the dorm rooms.

This is a traditional dorm room in Meknes.

Up on the roof of the school, I saw a great view of the old city of Meknes. The school is next to the city's central mosque, so I got to see the mosque's minaret up close. Every day at prayer time, the muezzin ascends the minaret to call the faithful to prayer. All of the minarets in Meknes are green and square -- it's the local style.

I pose in the shadow of the minaret as seen from the roof of the school.

In Meknes, I also did a little shopping. I was interested in buying a decorative tagine. A tagine is a type of dish used in Moroccan cooking. It has a conical shape with a narrow top. You can put all sorts of things inside it, especially meat such as chicken or lamb as well as vegetables and potatoes. These tagines are small but intricately decorated. Tagines used for making meals can actually be very, very large. When the waiter brings you your food, he ceremoniously lifts the top off your tagine, revealing your perfectly cooked meal.

Look at all these beautiful tagines!

--Bobbe