It’s November 2014 outside and we have an opportunity to visit few cities in Africa! We are going to Morocco! Three days and four cities to visit, sounds like a solid plan:)!
We landed in Rabat, it’s Morocco’s capital, situated right on the Atlantic Ocean.
Hello Africa!!! We are ready to explore you!
Yeah, it’s November outside, but still let’s say hello to the ocean!
We are starting our visit with unique place in Morocco called Kasbah of the Udayas (it has status of World Heritage Site by UNESCO). It was a powerful fortification with a strategic location once but now you can find here fortress walls, mosque, museum, gardens and residential neighborhood with beautiful buildings built in Andalusian-style!
Here are 11th-century fortress walls.. Go inside and ..
and enjoy aimless stroll on the winding alleys in this area with medieval architecture still inhabited by locals. Stunning blue and white facades a great joy for photographers 🙂
By the way, remember if you are female traveler in Morocco – keep your chest, back, belly, knees and shoulders covered (elbows and calves in conservative areas).
We reached one more important touristic stop in Rabat!
It’s Mohammad V burial place, so impressive mausoleum! It’s really very interesting in terms of architecture! You’ll find charming mosaics and other Moroccan symbols inside and outside this opulent tomb chamber.
One more thing we really liked – the guards on horses in ceremonial costumes! They are so graceful!
We really recommend this place, worth to visit!
Near the mausoleum is one more place to see in Rabat (the entrance is free) – it’s the unfinished minaret, built of the reddish stone with intricate motifs on it’s facade. It was intended to be the largest minaret to a huge mosque (largest in the world :)) that has never been completed.
Nowadays we can find only an unfinished minaret and a lot of columns, but still so magical feeling when you are here!
As Coke fan I can’t miss to try this one on our way. We are heading Meknes!
Despite being one of the 4 Imperial cities – Meknes isn’t so touristic compared with Rabat, Marrakesh and Fez.
Meknes has two faces:) the first one is new – with big and modern houses, branded cars and shops (here, on the photo below we are walking through ) and the second one is old – historical medina (old town) with it’s great historical monuments, sights and so romantic atmosphere 🙂
We reached Lahdim Square a.k.a. Al Hadim Square. It’s a large square, located between the old town and the imperial part of the city. I would say that here you can find and feel “local life of Meknes”:) cause it so busy, colorful and never empty (hustle and bustle is always here 🙂 ). Plus the square is facing the famous gate Bab Mansour.
The square is occupied by an uncharacteristic market – all you can imagine 🙂 You can peacefully walk around, sellers are not pushy and prices are lower than in other big cities. Here you can find a lot of pottery stalls, storytellers, animal trainers, places to eat, drink mint tea and watch the world go by 🙂
We need to move on and our next stop is a partly excavated Berber city, considered to be the ancient capital of the kingdom of Mauretania. It’s located 30 km from Meknes, place called Volubilis, a UNESCO World heritage Site! The city’s heyday was AD 24-285, so the most of the ruins date from this period of time.
Let’s stroll and explore it! First emotion – magnificent! plus this nice green landscape around! Surprisingly few tourists visiting this truly gem today 🙂
Can you imagine what an ancient Roman town looked like? No? So, visit this place!
Here are excellent, so well preserved mosaics, remains of Triumphal arch, city’s basilica, private houses with hammams(baths)…you will feel the taste of wealthy Roman life !
It’s really so marvelous and very impressive to see ruins from such a long time ago:) Don’t forget to bring hat, plenty of water, sunglasses as here is practically no shade and can be very hot in summer.
The next city on our way is Fez. Fez is one of the most ancient cities in Morocco, so it has a lot of history to explore, historic buildings on every corner!!! but we’ll have not enough time to enjoy it all 😦
We know that here is one of the oldest medieval medina in the world! Let’s explore it, try to soak up the atmosphere of city’s life and try not to get lost in it :)) !
Ohhhhh, this old town is a paradise for shopaholics, cause it has plenty of local craft works (colorful slippers, pottery, glass lamps, leather and metal works….) plus a labyrinth of narrow and twisty high walled alleys where getting lost is a part of exploring 🙂
Ohh, yeaaah, we’ve done it! We lost our orientation!:) BUT! We asked for a help! Local boys where happy to help us and it was a big surprise, that they get us on a bigger street and said – We can’t go further with you, go that way 🙂 – WHY? Cause there is a special touristic police and if policeman will see locals with tourists (that haven’t special “touristic license”) this person will have big problems:) So, on the one side it makes you feel safety when you are in Fez! Honestly, it was a bit scary to get lost in dark in so big and twisty medina and we were so happy that locals assist us 🙂
Go for a short walk near the hotel and grab some oranges from a tree 🙂 This is how we started our last day in Morocco 🙂 The perfect way to start a new day? Isn’t it?
Today we are going to visit very popular tourist destination! so called the Blue City or blue pearl of Morocco:)
Are you ready for 50 shades of blue… 🙂 ?
Chefchaouen is famous for it’s varied shades of blue and white painted houses plus gorgeous blue alleyways.
Why it’s blue? Ohh, there are some beliefs why all is painted blue.
One of them is that Jewish (during Spanish inquisition a lot of them settled here in the 15th century) believe that the blue color represents the sky, so it remind people about heaven and God. Another version is that blue color keeps the mosquitoes away, they don’t live in the water and blue color looks like a water 🙂 One more belief is that the blue color keep building cool in the warmer months 🙂
No one knows the original reason for painting the city in blue, but a lot of tourists is a major reason why the practice continues 😉
Blue is a color of happiness and optimism in Islamic culture. Personally for me it looks attractive and has so special calming effect.
It’s really nice to wander through the city’s medina and admire the picturesque scenes, by the way the entire city is painted blue (not only one street…) It’s really beautiful and very, very blue 🙂
As you wander round you’ll find a lot of small shops making and selling artisan products.
I love how quiet and relaxed the city is.
Chefchaouen is a perfect place to wander! Amazing place to make some incredible photo-shots!
The surrounding landscape is astonishing too! I really wish that we would have had some time to do some hiking, look at this glorious scenery of mountains behind me!
It’s time to go home 🙂 Last photo of palms and sunny blue sky:) cause snowy Latvia is calling for us 🙂
Tomorrow will be new day and new emotions:)
See you tomorrow 🙂
Don’t sit at home. Travel! Travel with me! 🙂 Meaww!
go and travel with me 