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Fez in Photos

Some images from the old medina in Fez:

Morning Medina in Meknes

Once the capital of Morocco (1672 – 1727), Meknes is often overshadowed by the much larger medina found in neighboring Fez. I only stayed a day (partially because I was shivering all night in my hotel, which didn’t believe in heating), and decided to explore the medina by early morning, before all of the shops opened up.

Todra Doors

The doors of the Todra Gorge:

A Day in Todra

Anatole and I woke up, climbed a mountain, and came back down. Because that’s what men do.

From Marrakesh to Todra

The road from Marrakesh over the Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate and the desert is nothing short of spectacular, from the flat plains of Marrakesh to the undulating green hills of a few miles east, to the stark mountain scenery of the passes, to the bright red earth of the hills around Ouarzazate and the contrast of bleak desert and green patches of oasis further on.

Unfortunately, God and my own retardation conspired to prevent me from getting more pictures of this journey.

On the way there, I didn’t realize until after crossing the mountains that my new Lumix camera (which my brother brought for me when I picked him up in Casablanca a few days earlier, since my previous one was stolen in India) was accidentally set on Macro. Note to self: Macro setting takes horrendous landscape shots. And then the battery ran out, because I’d forgotten to recharge it the night before.

I figured I’d get another opportunity on the way back, but then the unthinkable happened: a deluge of a rainstorm on that day, making the entire day almost impossible for photography. The last couple images are the only ones I managed between lulls in the storm after re-crossing the mountains. Ah well, next time.

The 3rd – 7th images are from Telouet, what used to be an important stopping/taxing point for caravans right before crossing the Atlas towards Marrakesh.

And take a look at the middle and right pictures on the 4th row. They look like totally different places (one has a town with lush greenery in the middle, the other a lone building and desolate desert), yet I took them from exactly the same spot…with a little fill in the middle the two would be a panorama.

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Marrakesh Foot Fetish?

No, I don’t have a foot fetish, but I certainly had fun taking some of the shots in this gallery:

Morocco: America’s Oldest Friend

Morocco and the United States have a special and long-standing relationship.

When America fought for and won independence from the British, Morocco was the first country in the world to recognize the newly formed United States of America. When the Americans faced trouble from Barbary pirates operating from the coasts of North Africa, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson signed the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship in 1786, America’s oldest non-broken friendship treaty to this day (and Morocco remains an American military ally). George Washington wrote a letter to the Moroccan Sultan in 1787 even further strengthening ties between the two countries, and the U.S. consulate in Tangier is the first property that the U.S. government has ever owned abroad.

During the First World War, Moroccan troops fought alongside U.S. Marines in France. Then the relationship gets even more interesting.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the U.S. entered the conflict in WWII, which country did America first invade? Morocco.

On November 8, 1942, 35,000 American troops under the command of the infamous General Patton landed in Safi and two other Moroccan ports as part of pincer movement to capture Casablanca, the opening salvo of the North African Campaign.

The Americans were not fighting the Moroccans, however. Morocco had been assimilated into the French colonial empire some 30 years previously, and despite British and American overtures prior to the invasion French troops headquartered in Morocco tried (unsuccessfully) to fight off the Allies, the allegiance of the French generals in Africa was unfortunately stronger to the German-backed Vichy government in occupied France than to the promise of a free France.

(Interestingly for military buffs, the North African invasion as part of Operation Torch was also America’s first major airborne assault, with troops flown all the way from Britain to capture airfields.)

After the capture of Morocco, American President Roosevelt immediately sent a message to Morocco’s Sultan Mohammed V promising a thriving partnership once the Germans were defeated, and that indeed has largely been the case. Trade and relations between the two countries have been strong, and the U.S. happily endorsed Morocco’s independence in 1956.

Sultan Mohammed V’s successor, King Hassan II, personally met with American Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton, with Clinton flying to Morocco’s capital of Rabat in 1999 to attend his funeral.

And since September 11, 2001, the United States and Morocco have been stalwart allies, with religious extremism virtually nonexistent in this predominantly Muslim country.

It’s not every day you get a friendship that lasts 222 years and counting, and perhaps it’s only fitting that the first country to recognize America would also become its longest standing friend.

The Doors of Marrakesh

Maybe if people stopped making such interesting doors I’d stop taking pictures of them. But in Marrakesh, there are fascinating doors aplenty:

Help Me Caption This Image IV

It’s time for the fourth installment! Help me write a clever or funny caption for this image: