Be like water
Here are some pictures from Morocco that did not make it into previous posts. There is also a section on buildings and construction techniques currently being used around the country. There are “bezeef” (many) pictures!
Fishing boats on the banks of the Sebou River, a few hundred meters from the ocean at Mehdya Plage. The current in this river is so strong, many of the fishing boats do not use motors. The boats come and go with the incoming and outgoing tides. The fishermen on these boats mostly use their oars to steer their way up and down the river. People have told me that there weren’t many fish left in the river but I’ve seen plenty of fish in the fish markets on the street.
The ocean rip tides at the beach are also very powerful. Many swimmers drown at Mehdya throughout the year because they underestimate the strength of the ocean rip currents. The strong river current can carry their bodies far up the Sebou River and the river patrol is kept busy looking for them. We watched one day as the patrol boat swept back and forth across the river searching the river banks for one unfortunate swimmer.
Aerial view of the Sebou River. Mehdya Beach is on the upper left hand side of the picture, to the left of the jetty. Moroccans call the jetty “the moon”.
The Mehdya Beach jetty. The Sebou River mouth is on the other side of the jetty. A strong rip tide can take a swimmer out and around the jetty. If the tide is coming in, it’s a long way up river.
View up the Sebou River from the north side of the jetty. The kasbah (old castle) is barely visible on the hillside in the background. Before the kasbah was constructed, a temple was built at that location in the sixth century and used by the Phoenicians.
Entrance to the kasbah. Sadly, the kasbah has not been maintained and is mostly in ruins. We were warned that it was not a safe place to visit. It is not a tourist destination, though it could be an incredible spot. Everywhere surrounding the old castle walls are piles of construction debris from the building boom taking place all over Mehdya, trash, graffiti and shady looking characters. This place has the potential to be a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Mehdya Beach from the south side of the jetty.
A beach cafe.
– Thamusida
“Just north of Kenitra is the ancient Roman river port of Thamusida. The site was excavated from 1913 by the French, then 1959 to 1962 and since 1998. Many items found in Thamusida are today on display at the Rabat Archaeological Museum. It occupies an area of fifteen acres. Excavations have unearthed the walls of the docks and baths.
The city originally was a berber settlement, that was occupied by Romans in the first years of Augustus rule. There were a military camp and a nearby little city, until Claudius enlarged Thamusida. According to historian Stefano Camporeale, the auxiliary unit that built the roman camp in Thamusida was probably the Cohors secunda Syrorum civium Romanorum in the second half of the first century (ceramic evidence confirms this chronology): this camp (with annexed “vicus”) was one of the largest camps of the whole province of Mauretania Tingitana and measured about 2 hectares. Later the settlement grew progressively, and by the end of the second century or the early third century, it was surrounded by a wall that included a total area of about 15 hectares.
In the third century Thamusida became a mostly Christian city, with a population of nearly 7,000 inhabitants. The site was abandoned around 285 AD, when Diocletian moved the Roman limes of Mauretania Tingitana to the north, near Lixus. There were some inhabitants -according to recent archeological discoveries- in Thamusida for another century after the Roman abandonment. But with the Vandal invasion the city disappeared around 425 AD. ”
– Wikipedia
Without a 4-wheel drive vehicle, Thamusida is inaccessible. Another tourist destination waiting to happen.
If you build it, they will come…
– Fez
Old light post and front gate of villa ruins in Fez suburb.
The neighborhood in Fez that we lived in last winter is called Hay Anis. Before the building boom of the past 15 years, there was a large villa in the center of what was then farmland. All that is left now is an old light post, front entry gate, building foundations and unattended orange groves. Behind the gate is a beautiful tile fountain languishing in the rubble. The sour juice from the oranges is used for olive pickling brine. These olives are quite delicious!
Tile fountain behind the old villa gate pictured above.
Street in Hay Anis.
Mosque in a new neighborhood.
Excavation for new housing. The layer of dirt within the first foot was full of trash and plastic bags too numerous to count. The next four or five feet was beautiful clean soil. A commentary about the last 30 or 40 years.
Typical Moroccan rooftop loaded with satellite television dishes.
Hay Anis, Fez housing.
Typical new housing under construction. Each floor is a concrete slab supported by steel reinforced concrete pillars and (in this case) by interior bearing walls. The rest of the exterior walls will be filled in with lightweight, hollow, terracotta bricks. An example of how these red bricks are used can be seen in the next picture. Many of the completed buildings have a finish coat of stucco only on the street side. The rest of the exterior walls are left unfinished and unpainted. There is very little insulating value to this process. The bricks are porous, with holes and voids large enough for birds to nest. Mold grows easily both in the interior and exterior of buildings. There is usually no central heating in Moroccan buildings and they are really cold in the winter.
This little “structure” is actually a guardhouse that a night watchman will stay in overnight and keep watch on the neighborhood. There is one in every neighborhood.
– Volubolis
Tile floor in a residence. 2,000 years old, more or less.
Arch of one entry gate to the city.
Same arch in the distance.
No wonder I always liked to build arches on my building projects!
Foundation blocks.
– Mouley Idress
The picturesque whitewashed town of Moulay Idriss sits astride two green hills in a cradle of mountains slightly less than 5km from Volubolis and is one of the country’s most important pilgrimage sites. It’s named for Moulay Idriss, a great-grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of the country’s first real dynasty, and Morocco’s most revered saint. His tomb is at the heart of the town, and is the focus of the country’s largest moussem every August.
Moulay Idriss fled Mecca in the late 8th century in the face of persecution at the hands of the recently installed Abbasid caliphate, which was based in Baghdad. Idriss settled at Volubilis, where he converted the locals to Islam, and made himself their leader, establishing the Idrissid dynasty.
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