McLeanCamino: April 27 and 28th Meknes, Volubilis and Fez, Morocco

Our Riad Zahraa Al Ismailia in Meknes was very inexpensive at less than $35 a night for a triple room. This actually gave us a queen to sleep in and a twin to put the suitcases on. It also gave us access to cheap laundry (a load up to 5 kilos was $5), and they had a good breakfast included in our rate. The downsides were no TV, somewhat noisy from medina neighbors until midnight or later. But these medina quarters are the most interesting with their narrow alleys and street, bustling market areas divided into various souqs and its outer walls and countless entry gates.

The first evening we got quite lost despite receiving some directions, and finally arrived at and enjoyed a good meal at Riad D’Or along with a bottle of Toureq rose wine from the Meknes area. We asked to be guided back to our riad so we did not get lost on the way home. A "Riad" is a traditional Moroccan home which is focused on the interior open area. There are usually no windows on the first floor on the outside to keep the home private. In a riad the inner courtyard is supposed to contain a garden (riad in Arabic means garden) but a "Dar" has just an inner tiled courtyard with usually a fountain. Nowadays the open roof areas have been covered by movable roofs to let in light and fresh air and closed at night to reduce cold air and rain.

Next morning we spent some time on the internet, and only went out at lunchtime, eating at a rooftop overlooking the ancient main city gate.

Meknes Gate

We needed the internet to confirm our travel planning for the rest of our time in Morocco. We then visited the mausoleum of the country’s founder and ancestor of the current king, Moulay Idriss, who used Meknes as his capitol city, and was famous for his brutality, once fastening 10,000 skulls of his enemies to the city walls. He was a contemporary of Louis XIV of France, whose illegitimate daughter the princess of Conti he wanted to marry; Louis objected but sent him a collection of clocks in the exchange of gifts.

We also visited his granaries, which stored enough food and water to hold off a siege of a year, and his stables, which held 12,000 horses. We traveled to the different locations with the petite taxis which should operate by meter. In each city they are a different color. In Meknes they are powder blue whereas in Casablanca they were red. We also visited a museum by the market square that used to house an important family, and several medrasas.

Royal Stables for 12,000 horses

Meknes is the only city in Morocco preserving the art of damasquinerie, which is a technique of embedding silver on a surface of metal, before making a decorative product. This technique was originally developed by Jewish craftsmen in Toledo, Spain and with the expulsion of Muslim and Jews from Spain the technique was brought to Meknes. We were able to see this technique in one of the back alleys of the Medina.

Next morning, after some frustration with the internet which we later learned was because of visits to Meknes by VIP’s from Morocco and many other countries that day, and consequent restrictions on internet supplies, we left for Volubilis and Fez, using a “grande taxi” Mercedes that cost $100 for the half-day trip. Any as the vehicle is usually used as a “service” taxi with 6 passengers jammed in, the seat belts are missing/non-functional.

Mosaic floors still intact

Volubilis was the Roman Empire’s capital of the most westerly Roman province in Africa, and had a population of 20,000, including perhaps 7,000 slaves.
Only part of the city has been excavated, mostly by French and Moroccan archaeologists, and money for further work seems to have dried up, but there is obviously a huge city remaining underneath. It’s Roman heyday was the 2^nd and 3^rd Century AD, but it had been settled 500 years earlier by Carthaginian merchants. It continued to be inhabited apparently by Arab conquerors, and later dynasties, but was abandoned several hundred years ago when its marbles were taken to build Moulay Idriss's capital at Meknes.