Fes - the ancient imperial city of Morocco

With a population of one million people, Fes is the third largest city in Morocco and one of the oldest cities in the world, founded in 859 AD. The city has been called the "Mecca of the West", the "Athens of Africa" and is said to be the spiritual capital of Morocco. There are many different parts of Fes, but my tour mostly consisted of the old medina. The old medina is actually older than the city itself, founded circa 808 AD, and houses the oldest university in the world (which we unfortunately did not get to go into). 

This is Bab Bou Jeloud, the Blue Gate of Fes and the entrance to the old medina. Through the gate you can see two minarets belonging to the mosques inside the medina. Disclaimer: Wikipedia took this picture, not me.

Our first steps in the medina after passing through Bab Bou Jeloud. The two minarets are in the center. 

Part of the souk we passed through. I had to take the picture at a weird angle because a lot of shopkeepers do not like to have their pictures taken and will make you pay in return for stealing their soul with your camera. True story.

This part of the souk sold mostly food, like dates.

The local deli. Anyone care for some lamb? Yes those are brains on the far left. Mmmmmmmmm.

The Bou Inania Madrasa built in 1351-1356 AD and served three purposes: a school, mosque, and dormitory.

Two of the distinct features of the medrasa are its calligraphy and mosaics. 

Fes is also famous for its tanneries. These are some of the views from the balcony of the one we visited. The picture below shows the area where the bags and other products are dyed. 

You cannot come to Morocco and not look at carpets. So we did. All of the carpets are very unique and some that are made out of cactus are even fireproof.

The view of Fes from atop the carpet shop.

By the end of the Fes trip I felt like I'd been here a month. It had only been a week. I decided I should probably start to try and fit in.

Visit to Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Kasbah of the Udayas

During the first few days in country we toured three different sites. First was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. Hassan II was the king of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. He is buried at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V (his father). 

Any description of this day would not be complete without mentioning our awesome and wild tour guide who was a wealth of information and fearlessly led us through the city.

Believe it or not this guy jumped into busy streets numerous times to stop traffic for us. He's more agile than he looks. 

The mausoleum is the white building in the background. Walls surround the entire area which have two guards mounted on horses who change every 90 minutes. 

This is the area inside the walls. The tall building in the background is the Hassan Tower, originally built in 1195, it was meant to be the largest minaret in the world but was never completed. The smaller pillars were meant to be part of the mosque as well but were also left unfinished when construction plans ended with the death of Sultan Yaqub al-Mansour in 1199. 

 More pictures of the mausoleum. The gates on the right are not open to the public.

Here is the tomb where Hassan II is buried. In the top right corner there is an open Koran that is recited by a reader.

The Hassan Tour from a view outside of the walls. 

After visiting the mausoleum we traveled along the coast to the Kasbah of the Udayas. A kasbah is a type of city of Islamic city and this particular one was built around the time of the 12th century. 

The view of the kasbah from along the bay area.

A closer shot of the cliffs surrounding the kasbah. I actually took this in a cafe we went to after our tour.

Once inside the walls, we walked through housing structures that looked like this.

This is a housing complex / mosque that was located at the top of the kasbah over looking the coast...

...which looked like this. I think I could get used to living up here.

First post & First Day in Morocco

I'm going to fast-forward through the trip here. We went from Columbus, to Detroit, then boarded an 8 hour flight to Paris, and lastly flew from Paris to Casablanca. Landing in Casablanca was pretty much like landing in any American airport, except we got off the plane in the middle of the tarmac and took a bus to the terminal. In short, the trip to Morocco was pretty uneventful. 

So now we've reached Morocco. We met up with two of the Moroccans running our program at the airport and take a two hour bus ride from Casablanca to the capital, Rabat, where we will be studying. Once in Rabat we arrived at...

...this place. The IES center where we will be studying at.

After stopping at IES we met our host parents and went to our home-stays. 

Behold, my bedroom for the next month. That's actually only half the room. My roommate's behind is behind where I am taking the picture.

The rest of the house is pretty simple:

This is the main room and atrium. My bedroom is behind the closed doors, my host parents live in the room with the red curtains.

Kitchen. Didn't really need a caption for this one, the picture pretty much speaks for itself.

And this is the dining room where meals are eaten and TV is watched.

After we got settled in to our new home, we headed out for a tour of the medina, or marketplace, in which our house is located. The medina is a massive market where pretty much everything is sold. It can get quite busy. And crowded. 

The part of the medina we walked through here is kind of like an open supermarket with food and what not. There is a much more exciting part with pots, clothing jewelry, etc. The first two shots are earlier in the evening when we were first going out, the second two are later when it started to get dark and we were coming back.