Meknes Damascene

Damasceneware is one of the traditional crafts of Meknes and really nowhere else in Morocco. It is also practised in Toledo where gold is inset into elaborate abstract patterns against black metal backgrounds in methods which have remained the same for a thousand years. Presumably Meknes ware has the same origins and the skills were brought from Toledo by refugees from the reconquista but here silver is used instead of gold.  
The silver is applied as a fine wire to base metal which has to be heated and beaten to darken it and hammered into shape before the pattern is applied and annealed to the surface. Peacocks, in particular, are atraditional design but market demand has caused the craftsmen to branch out into such non-moroccan additions as kangaroos.

Moulay Idriss

Moulay Idriss is a lovely little town just North of Meknes. It takes it's name and fame from the tomb of the eponymous "saint", an object of pilgrimage. Because of this non-muslims were not allowed to stay in the town overnight until 2005. The upshot of this is that it has no major hotels but a number of guest houses which are considerably cheaper than established competitors in Meknes and Fes. You would want to take advantage of this if you intend to visit Volubilis which is only 4km from the town.
We were frustrated in our efforts to stay by the demise of the cooling fan in our hire car. We paid only a flying visit. We could only get a peep at the tomb which is protected from unbelievers by a barrier. A local faux guide took us round the pretty back streets above the mosque but after a while I gave up because of the gradient and sloped off to buy a hat a la Blues Brothers.

Tessilations

The zillij tilework of Morocco is well known but one of the more attractive aspects of a wander is to look down at the boring grey you are walking on. They eschew boring plain rectagonal pavers, or, if they do use them add pattern, in favour of fairly elaborate tessilating blocks. If they do have to use rectangles they will use elaborate laying patterns. Pattern for pattern's sake.

Monkey Business

Just south of Azoud in the Cedar Forests and by a convenient restaurant which obviously is responsible for feeding them you will certainly see Barbary Apes. We followed the directions in the Rough Guide which were spot on. It was a hot Sunday so there were loads of daytrippers out from Rabat and Fes who were getting very excited covering the apes with crisps and then being repaid by having their car ariels investigated. Enterprising young men brought richly capirisoned Horsesfor the tourists to pose for photos on and the children have rides.  

New Roof, New Shop

As part of the market improvements the old rattan roof over the passageway by Moha's "Afrika Arts" shop in the Arab Souk has been replaced. There is a general consensus that this is not an improvement. The new roof is of corrugated metal. It is rivetted to the old supports using a rivet gun. It does not allow light to filter through nor breezes. It heats up in the sun. When it rains there is the most dreadfull noise as the drops rattle on the metal and then form rivulets down the chanelss and all spill out at then same place. The scarf seller next door in particular has had to rehang his goods to avoid their soaking. There is also a consensus that it was not possible to fix the metal sufficiently and that as it is resistant to air rather than letting it pass through that it will blow off in the first high wind.
Anyway either because of or despite this Moha decided to refit his shop. When we left in March it was a hive of industry. New lights had been added it was painted an irridescent blue and pink material stapled above the display cabinets which where relined and the jewelllry rehung. Itook some pictures but was told not to blog it because it was unfinished and was to have stencils over all the paint work and indeed this was started. It would be wonderful when we retuned. We returned at the end of April and it was as we had left it. We leave again now and there is no furthe progress. Moha looks shamedfaced and says "We worked really hard for a week and then gave up." I like it as it is but obviouly cannot compare it with the original concept. 

Where have the barrow boys gone?

A really striking change this May is the complete abscence of barrow boys. Usually they are ouside the mosque and on the corner of Place Asserag selling the most perishable and seasonable crops.; strawberries, avocados, pears, quince. Also there have always been stalls by Bab Taghout selling kitchen equipment, tajines and diffusers. Hawkers sold mint and herbs at the gate and ouside were banan stalls and also pavement sellers of the very poor selling just a few bananas or aubergines. They are all gone, even though there is a new raised semicircle of paving which would be a good place for them. We discuss their abscence with Moha. I think that the city has had a clearout to protect its market and clamped down on them. Moha blames the international financial situation but then adds evidence for my theory by telling us of one fruit seller going from shop to shop in the Souk and the market manager came up to him accompanied by a soldier with a gun!!! and told him to move on and he could not sell. A clampdown seems much more likely to me because the short-term effect of a market failure would be that as one supplier went out of business the others would pick up their trade and there would be a gradual decrease rather than a total and sudden stop.
 Meanwhile I am bereft.We have to go much further to get mint and herbs and I have no idea whre to go to get fruit. Fortunately it is the melon season and greengrocers are carrying them as they are not too perishable but they generally don't carry perishable produce like strawberries and pears or the nectarines and peaches which should be available now and are in other towns but not here. Will we have to go to the Sunday Souk? I hope the authorites change their minds before they are next in season because if only shops selling to the affluent have them that is the far side of town to us.
The worst effects are in the square at the centre of the Arab Souk. This has always been full of vegetable sellers from blankets and baskets on the ground interspersed with the ware of the secondhand furniture sellers spred down the centre of the square. They are all gone. what is also gone particularly there but as you walk round the town is the vibrancy, colour and interest which accompanied them our visitors always enjoyed that and I think they have taken away a lot of the charm and attraction of the town. 

The square in the arab souk which is usually a market now only has bikes parked.



The mosque without stalls outside



View into town from top of bab Taghout showing some of the stalls 15.10.11.

 


 

That area today with new pavement but no hawkers.

A barrowless Place Assareg





North South divide and we Discover a Mooroccan Spring

There has been a heat wave here with temperatures in the 40sC in the shade. We took off on a little holiday to Meknes and the middle Atlas where it was only in the high 30s.
It was an eventful escape because the car broke down in Meknes, the fan giving out and overheating. We got it fixed but it broke again on Monday when we were nearly at Ouzoud. I could have been quite cross with the hire company but Mustapha had two of his associates drive overnight to deliver us a new car.
Anyway we had never be to the north before and we were surprised by the contrast with the south. By the time you get to Rabat the scenery is entirely different, the main crop wheat and you could be anywhere in Northern Europe. Except that the wheat harvest is in May.there was no rape, and no enclosure Act field system, so you felt that perhaps you weren't in England but there were no bouganvillea, cacti or argan trees so you certainly weren't in the Sousse.
There were other differences though, more like a reverse of Britain's North South Divide. Certainly if prosperity is measured b the ratio of cars to mule carts; private cars to taxis and tractors to Camel bike pickups the North is much more prosperous than the South.I had thought there was a lot of building and public works here in Taroudant but it is eclipsed by the north where all the towns appear to have brand new centres and public buildings and mile after mile of red and white no parking markings.
The people appear more Arab and less Chleuh, fewer turbans, more western clothes and the women wear exclusively Arab or western clothes. However the most noticable differenceis in their time keeping. The northerners definately observe clock time rather than sun time so they are an hour ahead of their southern counterparts and the northerners definately have the weekend on Saturday and Sunday rather than Thursday evening through Friday. This means that their children are on the same time as them , unlike the south.
This year the other difference is that after dry January, February and March, The north had rain in April. This meant that there is an explosion of flowers and a real spring-just like a sunny May at home.

                                      

Our rescuers who brought the new car