Meknes, Moulay Idriss, Volubilis and Fes in a weekend

This weekend we left on our first group excursion inland to the foothills of the Middle Atlas to see what remains of the four ancient kingdoms that at one point in time ruled Morocco. All 40 of us experienced the “Tour Bus” way to see a country. Not my favorite but it was a good introduction to these places that i'll revisit with the family when they are here in December. The drive to Meknes was uneventful on main highway through dry rolling farmland. Rural morocco in this region doesn’t seem too harsh as the farming infrastructure seems relatively modern and planned.

I wasn’t too impressed with Meknes, although to give it some credit I was only there for half a day. We visited the old granary, which was huge and empty. It was kind of eerie, but cool walking through the columns of it. The rest of our tour around Meknes was briefly rushed over (a mosque, and craft shop), so I didn’t take it in very much, but still interesting to see where the country was ruled from at one point in time. The only thing that really struck me was how big the palace walls were; most of time we were driving it seems to be along some kind of wall.





Next, we moved on to Moulay Idriss a beautiful ancient city that sits picturesquely on a hill overlooking a vast rolling plane of farmland. We parked the van and walked through the narrow streets to a guesthouse where we had a delicious four course lunch and tea and cookies on the rooftop terrace overlooking the city and valley and mountainsides.





After lunch, we drove down the hill to Volubilis where the largest Roman ruins in Morocco are found. We walked through the thousands of blocks strew everywhere. Columns, arches, temples and a reconstructed olive press where some of the remaining sites we could see. It was hot, open and the sun was high so getting back on the bus was nice.



The drive from Volubilis to Fes was absolutely beautiful with the late afternoon sun. Gorgeous reds, yellows, blues from lakes and Utah-ish terrain surrounded the bus, as it drove the windy hilly roads. I was falling in and out of sleep listening to Ratatat, and felt as if I was in a lucid dream. It was a beautiful drive.



Fes is home to one of the biggest medinas in the world, if not the biggest. We started off Sunday by driving up to a restored fort that over looks the medina and most of the city. It’s a massive expanse of monochrome tan square homes with satellite dishes like earrings; two or more hanging to a house. The streets lay secrectly inbetween the building but you cant see them from the hill. The medina has over 9,000 streets summing to about 60 miles in length if put all together. The streets vary in width from two lane roads to 20 inches where only one person can pass at a time or else there is an uncomfortable traffic jam. Donkeys carrying loads creep out of nowhere and almost run you over because they wear rubber shoes for grip on the slippery streets instead of horseshoes. You cannot hear them coming.







We wondered through markets where we saw butchers selling camel meat advertised with a head of a dead camel waiting to be sold. We made our way to the colorful tanneries and then through tightly packed souk streets where dust, donkeys and hundreds of people made the experience claustrophobic at times. Walking through the streets waves of varying smells overwhelm you ranging from shit to sweet dates stacked beautifully in a bowl waiting to be sold. And when you’ve finally made your way out to one of the gates and left the medina you feel like your leaving some world and entering another one less intimate and (I cant think of the word now but its just a sense of being removed from others)







I think of how easy it would be to be growing up in the medina and never leave it. I am sure it has that effect on people living there. There is everything you need there, and I bet once a kid leaves the medina for the first time to travel to say Rabat or tangier they also feel as if they are traveling to a different world.