The problem with having more wives than one is that you get read the riot act by all of them, should the occsion arise
Morocco 2001
Meknes
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The problem with having more wives than one is that you get read the riot act by all of them, should the occsion arise |
The not so politically correct story told to me by the locals was that one of the Sultans of Meknes, call him the Mad Monarch of Meknes, (it may have been Moulay Ismail) literally, worked 1000s of men to death to have them use the marble of Volubulis to construct his palace. The project, possibly due to a rebellion, was never completed and the Sultan was killed. |
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The Bab Lakhmis, one of a number of gates of the walled city of Meknes - only briefly stopped by on the way to Volubilis |
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The ornate Bab Mansur Gate |
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Throngs of worshippers going into the mosque. They were celebrating the Prophet's birthday and the town was filled with celebrants |
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When the procession passed, people were moving in a frenzy to the beat of drums and powered by hashish |
Volubulis
Vilubilis is a partly excavated city ruin. It was started by the Phoenicians in the 3rd Century BC and later became a Carthaginian settlement, until Rome defeated Carthage and took it over in the 1st Century AD, It was lost by Rome to local forces around 285 and for strategic reasons abandandoned by Rome. It was subsequently a Christian and then Islamic settlement and vacated by the Muslems finally in11th Century. |
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The Arch of Caracalla |
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The Volubilis Basilica |
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Another view of the basilica |
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The so-called House of Columns, because of the variety of columns, inlc. the spiral one you see here |
The best kept secret of Morocco must be the trains. I decided to return to Tongier by train (1st class) and it was an outstanding ride in air-conditioned comfort with food and coffee service coming by. Any future travel around Morocco will definitely be done by train. The only minor drawback, at the time, was that the Tangier station is a bit out of town, but ride-sharing helps with the price. I flew from Tangier to Marakech via Casa Blanca. While Royal Air Maroc used modern turbo-jets (in 2001) to get around the country, I am never one to enjoy flying foreign maintained aircraft. A few notable exceptions are El Al, Swissair, Air Vietnam, Lufthansa, German Wings, and Singapore Airlines. Maybe a few more.. |
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