Morocco, a prelude to paradise

16.05.2021
282

“They opened the gates of Paradise” was the comment of a friend, in love with me Moroccan and that he has visited the country three times and hopes to do so more times ” until Death Do Us Part.”

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Thanks to the beautiful ambassador of the kingdom of Morocco in Colombia, Loudaya Farida, Colombians can enter without a visa to the fabulous country that perfectly combines the Supreme charm of exoticism, tradition and ancestral culture of the Maghreb with the progress and thrust of its modern cities.

The Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans passed through this country. I enjoyed touring the splendid ruins of Volubilis, a Roman city founded by Juba II, who was married to Cleopatra Selene, who was the daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

In 788, Idris ibn Abdala, descended from the Prophet by his daughter Fatima, founded the first Moroccan dynasty. There are six so far, and the first were founded by tribes from the desert who advocated ever greater fervor in the practice of Islamism. These are idrisis, almoravides, Almohads, merinis, Sadis and Alawites, whose current representative is King Mohamed VI.

(Also: the most welcoming destinations and hotels in the country for tourists).

Morocco is the Maghreb country that came out best in the Arab Spring, thanks in part to its relations with Europe and its long presence in Spain, where it left an important mark on culture, art and science and on monuments such as the Torre Del Oro and the Giralda in Seville. One of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages was the Andalusian Averroes, who was born in Cordoba (Spain) and died in Marrakech.

Painters fall in love with Morocco. Delacroix and Matisse and 473 artists from 62 countries who have passed through Ifrit argue that the light of Morocco it’s magic.

Port of Essaouira, Morocco.

Photo:

Andrew Hurtado Garcia

Writers have also been enthralled by this country. Peter Bowles and Juan Goytisolo settled there; in Tangier they spent long seasons icons of the American Beat Generation: William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. And Saint-Exupéry illuminated children and adults of the world with his creations born in the south of the country in the Sahara Spanish, which after the independence of Morocco, in 1956, from France and Spain, belongs to Morocco.

Perhaps the two maximum emotions in Morocco reside in the route of the medinas and the route of the hundred kasbahs that ends in the desert.

The medinas are the traditional neighbourhoods of Moroccan cities. Visiting them, surrendering to their charm, letting themselves be carried away by their universe of colors and smells, entertaining themselves in contact with merchants and their businesses is a unique and memorable pleasure. In the medinas, labyrinths of hundreds of streets crowded with businesses, the visitor can get all the crafts and gifts that the exquisite Arab trade offer.

There haggling, a traditional custom, is a cordial pull and loosen. The cities of Morocco have their medina. The main ones are Fez, Meknes, Rabat, Marrakech, Casablanca and Tangier. I love them all, but Fez’s excites me above all. It has 300 neighborhoods, half a million inhabitants, 9,000 narrow streets and is the largest in the world.

A country to tell stories

All cities in Morocco deserve long visits. I always stop at two: Casablanca and Marrakesh. The first is inscribed in the history and imagination of the world. In history, because there in 1943 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill met and sealed the end of World War II.

In the imaginary, because Casablanca is the name of one of the most famous films of the world filmography. In it Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman flee the nazis. For me, Casablanca holds a memorable memory.

A restaurant was attended by Saint-Exupéry, the author of the little prince, and on a table he left several drawings that would later appear in the book. I photographed them because they keep them framed on the walls.

Hassan II built in Casablanca a monumental mosque, by the sea, unique in the world. The minaret is 200 meters high, and the interior, 20,000 square meters; its prayer room can accommodate 25,000 people, and the outer Esplanade can accommodate 80,000.

(Also: Lufthansa aircraft, with shark skin effect to pollute less).

Marrakech is the Pearl of Morocco. The Ben Yusef madrasa and The Bahia Palace are the summum of the beauty of Arabic architecture in terms of salons and coffered ceilings. The medina measures 600 hectares, and the wall that surrounds it, 19 kilometers.

The couturier Yves Saint Laurent lived in Marrakech and died there. He left to the city the Majorelle Gardens, a splendid palace with fountains and gardens of palm trees and a great variety of cacti of the strangest forms.

Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco

Photo:

Andrew Hurtado Garcia

Perhaps the greatest charm for tourists in Marrakech is its famous square, unique in the world, Jema-El Fna, World Heritage Site.

The city is the entrance to the desert, and the Square is a summary of the world of the Berber nomads of the desert: their songs, their shows, their crafts, their animal enchanters, their storytellers, their merchants of all kinds of junk, their water carriers, the women who make tattoos, the vendors of dates and delicious fruit juices… At night the Square is filled with stalls offering traditional food.

At one angle of the Square is the beautiful mosque La Koutubia, which served as a model for the Giralda of Seville.

The ultimate thrill in Morocco is to ride the road of the hundred kasbahs, which ends in the desert. The kasbahs are huge fortifications of Berber origin where the entire neighborhood was protected from enemies and inclement weather. Its picture is of stunning beauty and transports you to worlds of epic adventures.

We leave Marrakech and climb the Atlas mountain range, which crosses almost the entire country from North to South, and then enter the plains that gradually introduce us into the desert. The landscapes are of stark beauty: Rocky Mountains, large ravines, beautiful villages tucked into the heart of date palm oases.

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The first kasbah and the most beautiful of all is that of Ait Ben Haddou, near the Atlas Studios. Scenes from the biggest productions have been filmed here. These are some of twenty: Alexander The Great, Game Of Thrones, The Ten Commandments, Lawrence Of Arabia, Gladiator, Kundum, the jewel of the Nile, Star Wars, The Last Temptation of Christ, 007: living Dawn and The Mummy.

Riding a camel in the immense solitude of the dunes of Erg Chebig, the most celebrated of the Sahara; sleeping in a tent and enthralling contemplating the cleanest sky on the planet is the supreme pleasure to which an Earth lover can aspire.
From Morocco one returns with a renewed heart and a strengthened spirit. For many travelers, Morocco is the prelude to paradise.

If you go…

To get to Morocco there is a flight to Madrid or other cities in Europe, from where it connects with that country.
If you want to have a more vivid experience, you can travel by land from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar.
The currency is the dirham. One euro equals 10.76 Moroccan dirhams.
Have hotel excellent and at good prices.
It’s important be very respectful with the religion and customs of Islam.
In Morocco many people speak or understand the Spanish.