10 Morocco basics
Labyrinthine medieval markets, Berber casbahs, Roman ruins, spices and architecture, delicate flavours and odours, dimmed lights, riads (courtyard dwellings) and romantic palaces, Portuguese forts, red, blue green and white landscapes, the colour of imperial cities. Morocco is an exotic world, full of colourful contrasts, aromas and experiences, a balm for the senses where the verses of the poet of Fez, Abdellatif Laâbi, fall like ripe dates: “This light/ Cannot be described/ It is for drinking / It is for eating.”
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1- Crossroads of civilisations
Morocco was known to the ancient Arabs as Al-Maghreb al-Aqsa, the place where the sun set, on the very edge of the map. A meeting point for Arabs, Europeans and Africans, its Atlas Mountains figure in Greek mythology. Land of invader and invaded, its architecture and technology, arts and sounds, mathematics and flavours infiltrated the Iberian Peninsular, creating the genuine Andalucian soul and the Algarve landscape. Before them had come the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and Arabs, each mixing with the Berbers. Little is known of the latter’s origin, to which around half of today’s population belong. We know they were warriors and founded two important dynasties, the Almoravids (11th century) and the Almohads (12th to 13th centuries). The Marinids followed and with them decline, until the Portuguese arrived.
In 1415, the army of King João I conquered Ceuta, beginning the age of Portuguese expansion. In the history of Morocco, the Saadians (responsible for the disappearance of Portuguese King Sebastian in the Battle of the Three Kings) were followed by the Alaouites. In the 17th century, Mullah Ismail consolidated the country’s precarious independence. But with the arrival of the 19th century, the European powers started to covet Africa. France got Morocco. After the two world wars, the Moroccans wanted their country back and it was handed to King Mohammed V. The biggest challenge facing his grandson Mohammed VI today is adjusting the imbalances of a country swinging between the traditional and the modern in a world which once again finds itself at such a crossroads.
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2 – Awakening the senses
Anyone who lands in Morocco for the first time will be quickly confused by the mixture of conservatism and liberalism, tradition and modernity. Berber instruments jostle with the sounds of raï; intricate zellij mosaics compete for attention with modern art galleries and belly dancers turn up in zen lounges.
But some traditions don’t change, like Berber women’s use of henna for painting their hands, feet and face with designs and arabesques in a symbolic, sensual language of its own. Or the hammams, public baths which have existed in the older quarters since time immemorial. They represent an essential part of the social dynamic, especially for women who get together here, gossip and often arrange a bride for their marriageable sons. Ghassoul, scented oils, black soap, rose water and horsehair brushes are the materials used to beautify the body and the hair in these steam rooms. Very much in fashion is Argan oil, used for thousands of years as a beauty product. It is made from the fruit of the argan, a tree which only grows in southwest Morocco.
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3 – Architecture
The architecture is typically Muslim, but is tempered by the climate, the social structure and the trade routes which crossed the country. The Islamic and African influences are present in the austere mosques, exuberant gardens, majestic interiors and tasteful subtleties. Fortifications in the desert, casbahs, Portuguese forts along the coast and walled palaces attest to a turbulent history. In the cities, the madrassas (Koranic schools), the mosques, the gateways, arches and domes, the walls and the citadels, the medinas and the souks (markets) combine wood and other precious materials with fine tilework with its rigorous geometrical patterns and profusion of intense colours.
The characteristic houses of the Atlas mountains with their roof terraces are common in the countryside, while the streets of the medinas hide inner courtyard gardens behind plain wooden doors, the so-called riads. Sometimes these are simple family houses, but at other times they are unsuspected palaces, where orange trees, gardens, fountains, art and architectural treasures adorn the interior patios.
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4 – Marrakesh
Travelling with Miguel Sousa Tavares in his book South: “Marrakesh has seen successive generations of men come and go who have loved her like no other favourite in its harems, who have fought and killed for her, have planted detailed geometrical gardens, palaces of luminous tiles and terraces carefully planned to be shaded from the sun in daytime and never reveal quite everything in the moonlight, only that which is due to the human condition: ‘how sad that I cannot see you again… the most beautiful city of the South’”.
Colourful and exotic, mysterious and sensual, veiled and cosmopolitan, simple and opulent, it is one of the world’s magical places. Venerated by film stars, uncovered by travellers, voyagers and adventurers, Marrakesh means “leave quickly”, but everything here points to the opposite.
Djemaa el Fna square, a World Heritage site, has gathered together timeless characters for centuries. Every evening, the square is transformed into a huge street theatre, a stage for snake charmers, dentists, monkey tamers, acrobats, magicians, water-carriers, palm-readers, scribes, fortune-tellers, dancers, gnawa musicians, Tuaregs and storytellers. At night the square is full of street restaurants, whose gas lights illuminate sheep’s heads, the local speciality.
But it doesn’t end there, this city made from history and legends, chosen as a garden for the people. On Al-Menara Avenue, a 12th century garden became a work of art in irrigation. The view to the Majorelle Garden is not to be missed. Built in 1920 by Orientalist Jacques Majorelle and later acquired by Yves Saint Laurent, this is a tropical garden in the heart of the city. Giant bamboos, papyrus, palm trees, cypresses, bougainvilleas and cactuses stand in contrast to the intense colour of the villa’s façade, the famous blue Majorelle.
Catch a carriage and visit the 19th century Palais de la Bahia – a present from the Grand Vizier to the favourite of his 80 official concubines – the Saadian Tumuli, the Koutoubia Mosque, the Museum of Marrakesh and the Museum of Islamic Art.
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5 – Imperial cities
Fez, the blue city, Meknes, the green city, Rabat, the white city and Marrakesh, the red city. Of all the big cities, only Casablanca has no colour of its own, but was immortalized in black and white by Humphrey Bogart, when he forced Ingrid Bergman to catch the plane to Lisbon so that she wouldn’t regret it: “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”
Someone who didn’t regret it was Paul Bowles, the American writer, born in 1919, who made Tangiers his home (attracting the Beat generation poets). He wrote about Fez in Holiday magazine in 1950: “It interest lies not so much in relics of the past as in the life of people there; that life is the past, still alive and functioning. It would be difficult to find another city anywhere in which the everyday vicissitudes of medieval urban life can be studied in such detail.” Bowles was referring to Fez el-Bali (Old Fez), a memorable sensory and anthropological experience. In the medina, behind closed doors, rich palaces, riads, simple shops or new labyrinths are hidden, tunnels which lead to dyeing tanks and small workshops which have survived since medieval times. The souk – a tangle of narrow streets down which loaded donkeys, bicycles and people all pass – contains a good part of the city’s history, the oldest of the Maghreb empires, the proudest and the most intellectual.
One of its rivals is Meknes, the green city, which Moulay Ismail (reigned 1672-1727) turned into the “Versailles of Morocco”. El-Hedim square in the city centre opens onto the most impressive of gateways, the Bab el-Mansour. Rabat, the white city, is walled, hiding a modern capital which extends along the Atlantic seafront.
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6 – Atlantic coast
Going down the Atlantic coast you come to a series of fishing towns, industrialized areas, seaside resorts and of particular interest to the Portuguese, two unmissable cities. In one, El-Jadida, called Mazagão in the 16th century, you can visit one of the best preserved monuments to Portuguese military architecture, Cité Portugaise, with its elegant cisterns. After that lies Essaouira, formerly Mogador, a paradise for surfers and adventurers, where both Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix stopped off. The walls protecting the old city from the sea were solidly built by the Portuguese, lending it a powerful air of mystery. Orson Welles used it in 1949 to film his version of Othello.
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7- Montains
The significant number of mountains attracts walkers, mountaineers and adventurers wanting to have a go at the white peaks of the High Atlas, the rocky semi-desert of Jebel Saehro, or the isolated chain of the Riff and the Mid and Low Atlas, where the true Berber tribes live with their animals. The peak of Amtoudi and the mountains of Chefchaouen, Setti Fatma, Tafraoute, Sarhro, Tan Tan and Tubkal (highest point 4,167 metres), amongst others, will certainly interest lovers of heights.
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8 – Desert
The deserts, adverse, mysterious, treacherous and unexpected sources of life when there is no hope left, are oases, mirages and routes for ancestral nomadic people, sand in perpetual movement desolating everything they meet, spiritual retreats for anyone willing to sit in the dunes and feel the glorious nothingness of the absolute. Fascinating places. As the largest desert in the world, the Sahara invades Morocco from Algeria with its enormous emptiness, creating scenes of drought and extraordinary beauty. Between them is one of the classic casbahs in the Valley of Drâa, which connects the Ouarzazate plateau with Zagora, the “door to the desert” for caravans to Timbuktu in Mali. Or try the infinite beauty of the rolling dunes of Merzouga. For something completely different, join a camel excursion and become a Bedouin for a while. Nothing on the horizon and only the stars overhead.
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9 – A taste for spices
Moroccan cuisine is sensual, bursting with flavours and aromas. Spices are the key to its secrets, passed down from generation to generation, providing the personal touch. Cumin and saffron are ubiquitous. Ras el Hanout is a mixture sold by all the herboristes, always containing nutmeg, ginger, lavender, cumin and pepper. Olives, honey, oranges and dried fruit, in dishes such as couscous and tajines, rival any regional delicacy. Rose water is used in pastries and rose petals to decorate tables at festivals. Another guest with a guaranteed seat is mint tea. The tea ritual is one of the staples of the charm offensive for Maghrebian hosts. Served in small glasses, you should drink three after meals.
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10 – Ethnic extravaganza
The souks are the backbone of local business. Laid out by product, with the mosque in the middle, followed by candle and incense sellers, book stalls and so on outwards. At the city gates, through which the caravans once passed, are the ironmonger’s shops.
Here stores multiply in streets and alleyways through the labyrinthine medina. Leather, Berber silverwork, amber and coral, goatskins, copperware, tin and wood, slippers, djellabas, kaftans, oils and make-up, rugs, pottery, ceramics, spices… everything is mixed up together in a world of colour and smell. So don’t be shy: haggle. It is all part of the ritual of buying, giving the seller the chance to show off his commercial prowess. As well as the shops in the medina, try out the boutiques and “Morocco chic” stores to fill up your hand luggage in Marrakesh, Casablanca, Essaouira or Rabat, and the local handicrafts in the mountains, the Berber towns, the desert and the fishing villages.
By Patrícia Brito and Maria João Pavão Serra
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