Bobbe's trip to Morocco, part 7: Marrakech

This is the seventh post in Bobbe's series about her trip to Morocco.

Remember how, in my posts about Fez and Meknes, I wrote that those were two of Morocco's three great imperial capitals? I recently visited the third city in this group: Marrakech. Marrakech is quite a ways south of the part of Morocco where I usually live, so I had to take a long train ride to get there. Marrakech is actually the most popular destination for tourists to Morocco because it has such a lively town center with so much going on. I certainly had a great time there!

Here is a photo of the front of the Marrakech train station.

At the center of the old city of Marrakech is a giant square called Jemaa el-Fnaa. All sorts of people gather in this square to meet each other, entertain each other, and sell things to tourists. The square is especially known for snake charmers and men with monkeys on leashes, but I'm not going to put up photographs of either of these things because this blog does not endorse cruelty to animals. Instead, here is a photograph of a fun game where you have to catch a soda bottle with a fishing pole.

I watch people play an impossible game in Jemaa el-Fnaa.

In the evening, even more people come out and fill Jemaa el-Fnaa. Here are some acrobats performing for the crowd.

I watch the acrobats in Jemaa el-Fnaa.

You can buy all kinds of things to eat or drink right in the middle of Jemaa el-Fnaa.

I buy some fresh-squeezed orange juice.

I am reluctant to eat these cooked snails.

One of the exciting things you can see in Marrakech is a traditional Islamic school. Careful readers of this blog will remember that I visited similar schools in Fez and Meknes. This school is the Ben Youssef Madrasa, which was built during the 14th century, when Marrakech was the capital of the Marinid Dynasty. This school is quite large – it had rooms for 130 students, but at times it may have educated a total of 900 students all at once. That's a big school!

I pose in the courtyard of the Ben Youssef Madrasa in Marrakech.

Another fun thing to do in Marrakech is to go shopping. The entire old city surrounding Jemaa el-Fnaa is filled with people selling all kinds of exciting things. Here are some photographs of the things I saw there.

I think this vendor is selling colorful products that can be made into dyes.

This vendor is selling spices. In Marrakech, spice vendors always shape their spices into precarious cones.

This vendor is selling dates, nuts, and dried fruits.

--Bobbe