The Incomparable

The city of Marrakech possesses a fascinating blend of old and new. On nearly every road, cars mingle with horse-drawn carriages toting tourists and donkey-pulled carts transporting all manner of goods. In the marketplace, some men are hand-stitching fabric alongside other that are using powertools to cut modern pipes. The squares are filled with water sellers dressed in traditional outfits alongside vendors selling Anna and Elsa balloons. Of course, we observed many of these things in other countries, but the contrast somehow seems more stark here. Other cities felt new with a bit of old, or old with a bit of new. Marrakech feels solidly both old and new.

Since we are technically staying in the Marrakech medina (which is very spread out and spacious, versus the Fez medina), we were able to walk to all of the sites today, and it felt amazing to be free from the car. We first walked to the Koutoubia Mosque, a 12^th century structure that is apparently the sister to the Hasan Tower we saw in Rabat. 

Koutoubia Mosque minaret. Note the water sellers in traditional red outfits in the bottom right corner.

This mosque actually replaced another mosque, as the architect of the first mosque made a rather big mistake: the building wasn’t facing Mecca. The Koutoubia Mosque still gets quite a lot of traffic, attracting about 20,000 people to its Friday prayers and more during Ramadan (per Ahmed, the imam has a beautiful voice and people will travel from across the city to have him transport them to a religious state of mind during that holy month). As with other mosques, at the top of the minaret is a wooden structure that looks like gallows. This structure points towards Mecca, providing a reference for those praying at their shops or homes. Additionally, a flag is hung from the structure at prayer time so that the deaf can see what they cannot hear. Many mosques also have three golden balls on top, a reminder of the three main pillars of Islam that people are supposed to abide by regardless of their wealth (the other pillars, such as the pilgrimage to Mecca, require $$$). The Koutoubia Mosque has four balls atop it, and there are multiple stories as to why, including that the queen broke her Ramadan fast with a couple of dates once and, as penance, gave her jewelry to be melted down to adorn the mosque.

We then walked to the medina, where we were instructed about traditional Moroccan herbs.

This also being a sales performance, it seemed as though every herb and oil could cure a hundred ailments, and of course this was the finest place to get them. We were given little drops of oils and creams to try until we all smelled of argan, orange blossom, prickly pear, and more. While argan oil has made Morocco famous with the modern crowd, we were told that prickly pear oil is the new cosmetic It girl given its anti-aging properties. Of course, it’s far more expensive than argan oil, likely because it takes one ton of prickly pear fruit to provide enough seeds for one liter of the oil. One of the more surprising experiences was smelling the nigella seeds, which are used to open people’s sinuses when they are sick. It feels like a small explosion in the front of your face! We also smelled small blocks of amber (made from a particular tree’s sap, not from the stone), which was lovely. We purchased a few items, each of us following our noses, and then departed to wander the rest of the medina. The Marrakech medina streets are much wider than those of Fez, which was exciting, as we could actually walk two abreast. At least, that’s what we thought. The wider streets meant that people were riding bikes and scooters down the medina streets at high speed, and we had to constantly be alert to the roar of a motor so we could jump out of the way.

Our next stop was the Bahia, a palace for the Vizier Ahmed Mimosa, who ruled Marrakech after King Hasan I died while Hasan’s son was growing up. When the French colonized Marrakech, the savvy Vizier became the Prime Minister, so he got to enjoy his palace for quite a few years. The palace was constructed over 8 years with about 1,000 people working full-time, and the craftsmanship shows in the attention to detail on every surface of the walls and ceilings. The main riad (courtyard) was built to be the exact image of paradise, as described in the Quran. That holy book describes a fountain in the center leading to four rivers that split a garden, hence why many riads have a central fountain with four walkways radiating out through the garden. In the Quran, the rivers run with milk, honey, wine, and water. That part wasn’t reproduced. We saw the Vizier’s office, which had large mirrors to bring the vision of the garden into his work space. We then continued on to the rooms for his four wives, situated around a beautiful courtyard. The largest and grandest room, complete with marble floors and painted plaster, was the room of the Bahia, the favorite.

She was said to be the most beautiful and the favorite (and vain to boot), but she cemented her status by bearing the firstborn son. It seems the Vizier was a busy man at home, as he had 24 concubines in addition to his 4 wives. These concubines shared a larger courtyard beyond the room of the Bahia and served as the Bahia’s attendants.

One interesting architectural detail was that the windows in the dining room were set low to the ground, as they sat on mats and pillows rather than on chairs at a table.

We then walked to the Badi Palace, whose name means the Incomparable Palace. 

This structure was built in 1578 for a king whose empire extended to Timbuktu. From Timbuktu, he got massive quantities of gold that he used to gild nearly the entire palace – all 150 x 130 meters of it. Sadly, none of that decoration exists today, as the jealous Sulta Mulay Ismael (we saw his palace earlier in the trip) was jealous and stripped the palace of its decorations while constructing his own. Now, the earthen walls are decorated only with stork and pigeon nests. In the enormous courtyard, the large central swimming pool remains, flanked by recessed orchards of orange trees. 

The orchards were planted lower in the ground so that those walking through the courtyard had unobstructed views of its splendor. Pretty cool idea, right?

For lunch, we had a Moroccan specialty called rafisa, which is a mound of crepes mixed with lentils and chicken and covered in a deliciously spiced sause. Reinvigorated, we ventured into the main square, where locals preyed upon the exotic fantasies of tourists to make a buck. Snake charmers sassed cobras; monkey handlers dragged the cute little creatures around by metal collars attached to a long chain; water sellers dressed in traditional bedazzled outfits with a goatskin pouch covered with fur as insulation; fortune tellers huddled under umbrellas with their clients, probably foretelling a future of wealth and happiness. 

Probably the most interesting sights were (1) when a snake charmer gave one of his cobras a sip of water out of a plastic cup, and the little creature lapped it up with a tiny tongue, and (2) when we found a man custom-making dentures at a small booth. With all the sugar they eat and drink in Morocco, dentistry is a booming business. For those that can’t afford that kind of visit, though, this man provides a way to keep some teeth in your mouth - even if they aren’t originally your teeth.

We continued into the covered marketplace, which was much like any other we had seen. We bought strings of dried figs to satisfy our cravings and plunged into the heart of the market. While the majority of the market was rows of shops side by side selling essentially the same things (how do they stay in business??), we stopped at one fancy antique shop (La Porte D'Or) with incredible inlaid wood, ancient carpets, and other treasures. Apparently this is the carpet shop to the celebrities. We resisted joining his customer base but truly admired his wares. In another row of shops, we spotted an entire zebra skin – snout to tail, and 15-foot-long snake skins. Perhaps the exoticism of Morocco wasn’t just a tourism cover story.

We returned to the hotel for the highlight of the day: a hammam treatment. Hammams are the public bathhouses here and are a big part of the social fabric of Moroccan life. Many local people go weekly with friends and/or family members to socialize. In olden days, when more women were veiled and there was little mixing of the sexes, the hammams were apparently a way for a man’s mother to scope out potential brides. In our case, the hammam was a way to relax and be a little bit pampered. We headed down to the hammam in bathrobes, slippers, and underwear and entered the room. Inside, our robes and slippers were taken and we lay down on large stone benches. Each stage of the bathing process was performed on my sister before it happened to me, and her yelps and giggles were endlessly entertaining not only to me but to the hammam treatment lady. We were doused with warm water, rubbed in oil, and scrubbed with a rough hand mitt. The author of A House in Fez describes it as being licked by the rough tongue of a cat. The amount of dry skin that came off was disgusting. We were then rinsed again and slathered in gray clay before being rinsed again. We were slathered in a thick layer of argan oil and put back in our roes. From there, we went to lie on reclined chairs that felt kind of like pool deck chairs. We rested there for a few minutes before having massages in individual rooms. We left floating on a cloud of happy drowsiness, only to realize we hadn’t had dinner. It was probably the most mellow dinner of the trip for the normally rowdy Moore clan.

 Spotted 1: Moroccan lamps! Made of metal with small cutouts to allow line to shine through, these lamps cast a beautiful glow throughout a room and are everywhere around the city and around our hotel.

A shop selling Moroccan lamps

Spotted 2: Berber Viagra, also known as ginseng. It's in all the marketplaces!

Additional photos from our day: 

A Moroccan street shop

Beautiful wood and plaster detailing at the Bahia Palace

Ceiling decorations at the Bahia Palace

Painted plaster in the room of The Bahia

Tall spikes of spices

The largest stork nest at the Badi Palace. Since Badi means "incomparable", we dubbed this the Incomparable Stork's Nest. Of note, when seen from the side, this nest is built against the remnants of a chimney-like structure, so the bird was probably trying to even out the floor of the nest. 

Signs for your place of work at a street shop. There were incredibly funny paintings alongside but I didn't get a chance to photograph them.