Marrakech,
Today we took a full day tour of Marrakech - one of Morocco’s four Imperial Cities and the country’s second city after Casablanca. We shall visit the remaining Imperial Cities of Fez, Meknes and Rabat in the next few days. Marrakech grew as a market center in the spectacular setting of the Atlas Mountains at the time of the twelfth century Almoravid dynasty whose wealth derived from control of Andalusia, our eventual destination. The town’s focus is the market “square” of Djemaa El Fna, teeming with traders and entertainers, the latter combined in my personal favorite, the lady dentist who lines up teeth extracted without anaesthetic to encourage business. Everyone joined in the fun: gentlemen had their shoes shone, ladies had their hands decorated with henna, while others posed for photographs with live snakes around their necks!
In the Arab world, this is the red city – a name derived from its adobe architecture. It is also a green city, with an ancient irrigation system watering olive and citrus groves that we toured at the end of the day. The rapid spread of Islam out of its Arabian heartland in the eighth century saw a parallel rapid development of mathematics and trigonometry as Muslims calculated the time and direction of prayer in their new homelands. Advanced irrigation systems were a by-product of these developments, and Arabic numerals and terminology (al-gebra, al-gorithm, al-logarithm) might be called our Islamic heritage.
Our city tour included visits to the sixteenth-century Saadian tombs, the Bahia Palace, and the exquisite Koutoubia Minaret (pictured). Following lunch in a traditional Moroccan restaurant we returned to the ship through the parched but beautiful landscape of Atlantic Morocco, returning to the ship in good time to prepare for the Captain’s Welcome Dinner.
Today we took a full day tour of Marrakech - one of Morocco’s four Imperial Cities and the country’s second city after Casablanca. We shall visit the remaining Imperial Cities of Fez, Meknes and Rabat in the next few days. Marrakech grew as a market center in the spectacular setting of the Atlas Mountains at the time of the twelfth century Almoravid dynasty whose wealth derived from control of Andalusia, our eventual destination. The town’s focus is the market “square” of Djemaa El Fna, teeming with traders and entertainers, the latter combined in my personal favorite, the lady dentist who lines up teeth extracted without anaesthetic to encourage business. Everyone joined in the fun: gentlemen had their shoes shone, ladies had their hands decorated with henna, while others posed for photographs with live snakes around their necks!
In the Arab world, this is the red city – a name derived from its adobe architecture. It is also a green city, with an ancient irrigation system watering olive and citrus groves that we toured at the end of the day. The rapid spread of Islam out of its Arabian heartland in the eighth century saw a parallel rapid development of mathematics and trigonometry as Muslims calculated the time and direction of prayer in their new homelands. Advanced irrigation systems were a by-product of these developments, and Arabic numerals and terminology (al-gebra, al-gorithm, al-logarithm) might be called our Islamic heritage.
Our city tour included visits to the sixteenth-century Saadian tombs, the Bahia Palace, and the exquisite Koutoubia Minaret (pictured). Following lunch in a traditional Moroccan restaurant we returned to the ship through the parched but beautiful landscape of Atlantic Morocco, returning to the ship in good time to prepare for the Captain’s Welcome Dinner.
