Africa
Asia
Caribbean
Central America
Europe
Middle East
North America
Pacific
South America
There are loads of trekking possibilities in Morocco, a highlight being the beautiful trail between Tacheddirt and Imlil above the High Atlas snow line. Other outdoor fun includes rock climbing in the Todra Gorge, camel trekking in Erfoud and M'Hamid, desert quadbiking around Ouarzazate and surf fishing in the southwest. The winds and resulting surf off the Atlantic coast are great for surfing and windsurfing.
The medina of Fès el-Bari (Old Fès) is the largest living medieval city in the world. Its incredible maze of 9400 twisting alleys, blind turns and souqs are crammed with shops, restaurants, workshops, mosques, medersas (theological colleges), dye pits and tanneries. A riot of sights, sounds and smells, 21st-century Fès is groaning at its 9th-century seams.
Despite its designation as a World Heritage site, investment has been slow to follow. While the chic cafe-lined boulevards of the ville nouvelle provide a stark contrast, many young Fassis remain jobless, and the bright lights disguise the sad lot of the poorer people living on the periphery.
For the short-term visitor, Fès is terribly exotic and can be difficult to come to grips with. The medina can seem totally impenetrable. Though the amount of hassle is far less than it once was, the attention of unofficial guides, small boys, touts and shopkeepers can be intimidating for some. It is a veiled, self-contained city where life moves to centuries-old traditions - a city that doesn't easily bare its soul. With time, visitors begin to glimpse behind the anonymous walls and appreciate the rich culture and spirituality that is Fès.
Aït Benhaddou is one of the most exotic and best-preserved kasbahs in the entire Atlas region. This is hardly surprising, since it has had money poured into it as a result of being used for scenes in as many as 20 films. In recent years its population has dwindled, but it is under Unesco protection.
(32km from Ouarzazate)
water taxi grand taxi from Ouarzazate bus station
This huge square is the backdrop for one of the world's greatest spectacles. Lively at any hour of day, Djemaa el-Fna comes into its own at dusk when the curtain goes up on rows of open-air food stalls infusing the area with mouthwatering aromas. Jugglers, storytellers, snake charmers, musicians and acrobats fill the remaining space.
In between the groups of spectators, diners, shoppers and tourists weave the occasional hustler, pickpocket, knick-knack seller, hashish dealer and glue-sniffing kid. On the outer edges are the juice stalls with their kerosene lanterns ablaze. Beyond them, hunched on the ground with their eye-catching wares spread before them, herbalists sit poised to prescribe a potion for whatever ails you.
Later at night, with fewer visitors around, musicians from the Derkaoua and Gnawa spiritual brotherhoods start playing their strong hypnotic music on drums, flutes and ginbris (two- or three-string guitars).
Central Medina
The crowning achievement of King Hassan II, this phenomenal building is the world's third-largest mosque. It was built to commemorate the former king's 60th birthday and rises above the ocean on a rocky outcrop reclaimed from the sea. It's a vast building that can hold 25,000 worshippers and accommodate a further 80,000 in its courtyards.
Designed by French architect Michel Pinseau, the mosque is topped by a soaring 210m (689ft)minaret, which shines a laser beam towards Mecca by night. In addition to this high-tech call to prayer, the mosque also has a centrally heated floor, electric doors, a retractable roof and a section of glass flooring allowing the faithful to see the Atlantic washing the rocks below.
Above all though, it is the vast size and elaborate decoration of the prayer hall that is most striking. Large enough to house Paris' Notre Dame or Rome's St Peter's, it is blanketed in astonishing woodcarving, zellij (tile work) and stucco moulding.
The project cost more than half a billion dollars and was paid for largely by public subscription. Although most Moroccans, particularly those from Casablanca, are very proud of their modern monument others believe this vast sum might have been better spent. In particular, resentment lingers among the slum dwellers who were evicted without compensation from the area around the mosque.
Blvd Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah
tel info 022 48 28 86
bus 15 from Place Oued al-Makhazine
taxi petit taxi from town centre
Volubilis is the site of the largest and best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. Dating largely from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, excavations have revealed that the site was originally settled by Carthaginian traders even earlier. At its peak, it is estimated that the city housed up to 20,000 people. Take a guide, a hat and plenty of water. Magical at dusk.
(33km N of Meknès)
taxi shared taxi from Meknès Institut Français to Loulay Idriss, then walk or taxi to Volubilis
| full | Moroccan Dirham 20.00 |
Marrakesh is above all a city of drama. Its spectacular setting against the snow-capped High Atlas Mountains lingers long in the minds of most travellers, and the famous Djemaa el-Fna square provides perhaps the greatest open-air spectacle in the world.
Be drawn back into a world of frenzied motion, where jugglers and storytellers jostle for position with snake charmers, magicians and acrobats. Your nose will guide you to row upon row of open-air food stalls whose pungent smoke fills the air with mouth-watering aromas.
Make sure to make it to Marrakesh's souqs, which are among the best in Morocco. Here the city's arteries narrow to become mere veins; go with the flow squeezing past textile shops and souvenir stalls selling an array of art and crafts. Pause for a while to watch artisans at work fashioning slippers and dyeing rugs. With any luck you'll be spat out from the labyrinth at the city's oldest surviving mosque, Ali ben Youssef.
Its labyrinthine streets and crumbling grandeur add to its intrigue. The medina of Fès el-Bali (Old Fès) is one of the largest living medieval cities in the world, and its gates and walls are magnificent. Unlike many walled cities, Old Fès hasn't burst its banks.
The population has instead exploded out towards the southwest and spread to the hillsides in an arc stretching north and south of the new city. Within the old city is the towering Medersa Bou Inania, a theological college built in 1350.
Not far from here, tucked among roughly 9,400 streets and alleys, the henna souq is a market specialising in the dye used for colouring hair and tattooing women's hands and feet. Next door to the old walled city is Fès el-Jdid, home to the city's Jewish community and many spectacular buildings. In between the two self-contained cities is the Dar Batha, now the Museum du Batha.
The fourth of the imperial cities, Rabat is a curious mix of a long past and a highly modernised present. In the 12th century, the then sultan used the kasbah (citadel) as a base for campaigns against the Spanish. It was during this time that the city's most famous landmarks sprang up.
A haven for Muslims driven out of Spain in the early 17th century and a capital city only since the days of French occupation, Rabat's ambience comes from Islam and Europe in fairly equal proportions. For every place of worship there are three or four European-style cafes.
Few of Rabat's residents are involved in the tourist racket, which means you can stroll through the markets without having to brace yourself against too much high-pressure salesmanship.
The city's most famous site is the Tour Hassan, the incomplete minaret of the great mosque begun by Yacoub al-Mansour. Alongside is the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. The Kasbah des Oudaias, built on the bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, houses a former palace which is now a museum of traditional art. Beyond the city walls are the remains of the ancient city of Sala. Also known as Chella, it has Morocco's best Archaeology Museum.
Morocco is one of those religious frontiers where orthodoxy and local custom have met and compromised. The veneration of saints is frowned upon by orthodox Sunni Muslims but, in Morocco, mainstream Islam blends with the mystical practises of Sufism, which involves devotional dancing, poetry and trance. Because of this, the Moroccan calendar retains many moussems (non-Islamic 'holy' days), honouring holy men like Moulay Idriss. It's worth asking around for details of festival dates because they alter a little every year.
The two largest moussems in the Moroccan calendar are Moussem of Ben Aïssa, held in Meknès in June, and Moussem of Moulay Idriss II, held in Fès at the end of September when thousands gather to watch the processions to the saint's tomb.
Other, non-religious events, that pull in impressive crowds are the world-famous Gnawa and World Music Festival, held in Essaouira, and the Festival of World Sacred Music held in Fès in June. The Marrakesh Film Festival, held between September and December, is also growing in popularity and showcases Arab and African cinema to an often star-studded audience. Independence Day, one of five national secular holidays, is celebrated on 18 November.
