Palace, Tombs and Souk Tour

Today we arranged for a guide to take us around the city and Medina for an “educational” tour. We saw a lot yesterday but our guide, Mohammed, will be able to fill-in the blanks.

In keeping with Moroccan tradition, we are keeping score in the battle between mopeds and cars. Today, as with yesterday, the mopeds lost. Total score so far, Mopeds 0; Cars 2. Yes, today we watched as a van backed into a moped that was traveling at about 10MPH. Hell of a racket but nobody hurt.

Onward. We met our guide, Mohammad at 9:00 am and we were off on our walk.  First stop was Palais Bahia. According to the website the Bahia Palace is considered one of the grand palaces of the Moroccan city of Marrakech, or what is called the Red City. Created by Minister Ahmed bin Musa, in the 19th century, to commemorate the name of his wife, “Bahia”, and today it is an artistic masterpiece of Moroccan architecture of Andalusian character, well that’s what the website says.  It was pretty interesting, very plain stucco walls on the outside and full of beautiful tile work and delicate plaster carved walls and ceilings on the inside. The palace was home to the prime minister, his 4 wives along with his 20 concubines. Mohammad said the prime minister also had 800 children!

From the palace we walked to the Tombeaux Saadiens. Located next to the mosque of the Kasbah (Rock the Kasbah, baby!), the Saadian tombs are one of the only vestiges remaining from the Saadian dynasty which reigned between 1524 to 1659. At the beginning of the 18th century, Sultan Moulay Ismaïl decided to remove all traces of the magnificence of this dynasty by asking for the destruction of all the remaining vestiges. However, he did not dare to commit the sacrilege to destroy their graves and ordered that the entrance to the necropolis be walled up. There are three main rooms, one where the children were buried, one for the women and then one for the king’s, which is elaborately decorated.  We were told by our guide that the tombs in the courtyard were for the servants.

Our next stop was a pharmacy (Aux 100000 Epices) where our guide was obviously getting a “kick back” since it was a big sales pitch. It was interesting to smell all the herbs, spices and potions used for cooking, perfumes, essential oils and natural cosmetics.  After a very convincing presentation from an ex-East German wrestler who is now a make-up saleswoman, we made a couple of purchases. Ras El Hanout (a mixture of spices for cooking meats, vegetables and couscous), Argan Cosmetique (Argan oil for hydrating old, dried out skin), and Aroma 5 lotion for aches and pains.  All for the low, low price (today only!) of $73. We could have gotten a discount but I didn’t want to take the chance leg wrestling her.

Moving right along, now it was time to see the snake charmers and get our picture taken with a cobra.  For only 40 MAD ($4) we posed for a number of pictures with the snakes, a real dream come true.  Funny, while placing some “non-poisonous” snake on our shoulders, the charmer (I use the term loosely) told our guide his father was killed by a cobra much like the one he is shoving in our faces. Mohammad didn’t translate that until we were walking back to the hotel for a change of pants.

On to Jemaa el-Fnaa, a square and market place in Marrakesh’s Medina quarter (old city). We also wandered around the souks (smaller side alleys of shops). The biggest hazard in the souks are the mopeds that hurtle around at high speed.  We’ll also be keeping track of the Moroccan Moped vs Pedestrian games. So far, we’ve only recorded near misses, but I’m sure that will change.

It is amazing, the number of small shops that make up the souk. Literally hundreds of shops selling the same items, yet somehow, they earn enough to survive. Brass lamps, ceramics, leather goods and trinkets seem to make up 90% of what’s being sold. Of course, there are rugs for sale but they are farther out and only a few vendors compared to the other sellers. Just a note on the Medina structure. All medinas are laid out basically the same with expensive, high quality items in the center, and less valuable, lower quality goods as you go out from the center. On the far end of the medina are the “offensive” industries, like butchers, leather dying and tanning, due to the brutishness and odors created in the process.

Enough walking for now, time to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the people and vendors.  Since today is Saturday the market is very crowded with people, taxis, horse carts and the hundreds of mopeds and motorcycles.  You really need to watch where you walk in these narrow passageways or else you’ll become a fender ornament!

On our way back to lunch, Mohammad took us into the Spa Elisa Marrakech to see where we could get a “Hammam”, basically a body scrub with black eucalyptus soap and a body wrap.  We passed at this time since we were not prepared, and it is illegal to go nude in a hammam.

On to lunch.  Today we vied for a terrace restaurant and a traditional Moroccan meal.  We were served bread, olives and 5 different kinds of salads (potato, cucumber, beet, lettuce & oranges and a carrot slaw) as a starter. I had a chicken and vegetable tagine and Collette had a meatball and egg tagine.  We finished our meal with fresh fruit, cookies and tea all for 540 MAD ($54).

Party trivia: a “tagine” is an earthenware pot with the food prepared in the pot sharing the same name. Historically, the nomads in North Africa used the tagine pot as a “portable oven”, allowing them to prepare food at any time while moving around.

More walking around, some time spent blogging back at the hotel, now back out for dinner.  We ended up at Mabrouka Restaurant where the waiter recognized us from the previous day. He led us up to the terrace where we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a cheese pizza.  The terrace offers a great viewpoint where we spent a couple of hours enjoying the wine and food while watching the people on the street.

End of another day. Back to the Riad and a glass of wine on our terrace.