Dead Love
26 - 28 May, Ian
My apologies to those of you who were put off
your dinner by the last entry - no more goats' heads photos, at least until the
Morocco snaps at the end of the month. Shortly after posting that blog I had a
walk through the medina and passed one of the shops where they have the nice
white (live) chickens in cages at the back. As I walked past I saw a local
woman buy one and the bird-becomes-meat transformation was executed. The bird
was killed, plucked and beheaded in short order. Apparently chickens in the
medina are just as often bought live and killed at home, and for pigeons this is
the norm. Kinda fresh.
Yesterday we had an outing to Volubilis, which is an old Roman settlement not far from Meknes. As a commercial transaction we were mugged - the driver who was to show us round the place just didn't/couldn't. (The first driver sent along had his lack of guide credentials more conveniently exposed by his inability to speak a word of English.) Also our guy's answers to our questions, when he attempted them, were sometimes manifestly wrong. And he tried to rail-road us round a tourist circuit of Volubilis -> Moulay Idriss -> his mate's cafe for lunch -> Meknes that we just didn't want; we ended up bailing out and curtailing the trip, making him stop at the supermarket on the way home. (By the way, if you're ever wondering whether to take a trip to Fes or Meknes choose Fes.)
Having said all of that... The drive to Volubilis was extremely enjoyable, and Volubilis itself is superb. As some of you know, I used to have a Mercedes and I'd forgotten how comfortable they can be. After a while I got rid of mine in favour of a car (my BMW 840) that's tighter to the road and more fun, but yesterday it was a welcome luxury to enjoy the Merc's sofa-of-the-road feeling as we cruised up into the hills. As well as the ubiquitous olive groves, we saw orange, apricot, almond and pomegranate trees. The wheat fields were mixed with fields sown with chick peas, and sunflowers were also grown as a crop in larger areas than I've seen before. The farmers that you see here are very often with their donkey, and when the donkey is carrying the farmer rather than implausible large loads of wheat or whatever they are ridden side-saddle. While the farmers and their donkeys do a lovely job of adorning the landscape I can't imagine what their life must be like. The surroundings are beautiful but they seem to have to labour alone with medieval tools and live in the most solitary and simple homes.
Volubilis, as you can guess, is the site of an old Roman settlement, right out at the edge of the Empire. In Roman times up to 20,000 people lived there, and this is reflected in the scale of the remains. Volubilis was inhabited until the eighteenth century when locals must have decamped to Moulay Idriss nearby. The guy that Moulay Idriss is named after was sent out by the Prophet to convert the Berbers. He was, according to our dud guide, murdered while his wife was pregnant with a son who took the same name and who is now entombed in the centre of Fes (in that mausoleum that the donkeys are barred from, if you remember my earlier blog). Actually, since I don't want to misinform you, I just checked facts, and according to Lonely Planet, Moulay Idriss was the great-grandson of the Prophet, so it's doubtful that he was actually sent out by Mohammed in person as claimed.
Much of the marble from Volubilis was plundered for use at Moulay Idress.
At Volubilis you're free to wander about all over the site in a way that would be inconceivable in many places, especially since only a part of it has been excavated. My advice is go soon. It has the Marie Celeste eeriness of all places where you can see homes laid out that used to be inhabited and are now deserted. You might just as well note that all of the families from, say, Fes medina 500 years ago are long since dead, while the buildings in which they lived and loved remain largely unchanged: but as the place is still very much alive you don't get that same slightly tragic, slightly spooky feeling here. Volubilis has that dark frisson of calamity.
The mosaics are excellent, though with the site being so large and our guide taking a light snack in the cafe with his joke guide buddies rather than showing us round it's possible that we missed some of them. The one above is described on one of the sporadic explanatory boards as "The acrobat" since the donkey is being ridden backwards. Lonely Planet has a more satisfactory explanation - this is "an athlete being presented with a trophy for winning a desultor race, a competition in which the rider had to dismount and jump back on his horse as it raced along".
I would have loved to stay for longer but even with a pleasant breeze the heat, which is unseasonably intense, was too hot for the girls to wander around in for more than about 45 minutes. I'm tempted to return next week with a proper guide, but we probably wont. While none of us has yet, insha 'llah, been afflicted with the stomach problems that you might fear, the close heat has taken a toll on all of us over the past few days, particularly the girls who have been getting nosebleeds.
Staying with the theme of the spookiness of the dead, we continue to watch Buffy and have now started season four. Even Zoe admits that recent episodes are unsuitable for a seven year old, but it's unsuitable in a nice way, or as nice as any program featuring pretty much continual sex, violence and death can be. Do any of your kids watch it? While I haven't ever seen a whole episode of Hollyoaks, the other unsuitable program that Zoe watches regularly when we're at home, I bet Buffy offers a more positive influence. Anyhow, it's something we can all enjoy.
Yesterday we had an outing to Volubilis, which is an old Roman settlement not far from Meknes. As a commercial transaction we were mugged - the driver who was to show us round the place just didn't/couldn't. (The first driver sent along had his lack of guide credentials more conveniently exposed by his inability to speak a word of English.) Also our guy's answers to our questions, when he attempted them, were sometimes manifestly wrong. And he tried to rail-road us round a tourist circuit of Volubilis -> Moulay Idriss -> his mate's cafe for lunch -> Meknes that we just didn't want; we ended up bailing out and curtailing the trip, making him stop at the supermarket on the way home. (By the way, if you're ever wondering whether to take a trip to Fes or Meknes choose Fes.)
Having said all of that... The drive to Volubilis was extremely enjoyable, and Volubilis itself is superb. As some of you know, I used to have a Mercedes and I'd forgotten how comfortable they can be. After a while I got rid of mine in favour of a car (my BMW 840) that's tighter to the road and more fun, but yesterday it was a welcome luxury to enjoy the Merc's sofa-of-the-road feeling as we cruised up into the hills. As well as the ubiquitous olive groves, we saw orange, apricot, almond and pomegranate trees. The wheat fields were mixed with fields sown with chick peas, and sunflowers were also grown as a crop in larger areas than I've seen before. The farmers that you see here are very often with their donkey, and when the donkey is carrying the farmer rather than implausible large loads of wheat or whatever they are ridden side-saddle. While the farmers and their donkeys do a lovely job of adorning the landscape I can't imagine what their life must be like. The surroundings are beautiful but they seem to have to labour alone with medieval tools and live in the most solitary and simple homes.
Volubilis, as you can guess, is the site of an old Roman settlement, right out at the edge of the Empire. In Roman times up to 20,000 people lived there, and this is reflected in the scale of the remains. Volubilis was inhabited until the eighteenth century when locals must have decamped to Moulay Idriss nearby. The guy that Moulay Idriss is named after was sent out by the Prophet to convert the Berbers. He was, according to our dud guide, murdered while his wife was pregnant with a son who took the same name and who is now entombed in the centre of Fes (in that mausoleum that the donkeys are barred from, if you remember my earlier blog). Actually, since I don't want to misinform you, I just checked facts, and according to Lonely Planet, Moulay Idriss was the great-grandson of the Prophet, so it's doubtful that he was actually sent out by Mohammed in person as claimed.
Much of the marble from Volubilis was plundered for use at Moulay Idress.
At Volubilis you're free to wander about all over the site in a way that would be inconceivable in many places, especially since only a part of it has been excavated. My advice is go soon. It has the Marie Celeste eeriness of all places where you can see homes laid out that used to be inhabited and are now deserted. You might just as well note that all of the families from, say, Fes medina 500 years ago are long since dead, while the buildings in which they lived and loved remain largely unchanged: but as the place is still very much alive you don't get that same slightly tragic, slightly spooky feeling here. Volubilis has that dark frisson of calamity.
The mosaics are excellent, though with the site being so large and our guide taking a light snack in the cafe with his joke guide buddies rather than showing us round it's possible that we missed some of them. The one above is described on one of the sporadic explanatory boards as "The acrobat" since the donkey is being ridden backwards. Lonely Planet has a more satisfactory explanation - this is "an athlete being presented with a trophy for winning a desultor race, a competition in which the rider had to dismount and jump back on his horse as it raced along".
I would have loved to stay for longer but even with a pleasant breeze the heat, which is unseasonably intense, was too hot for the girls to wander around in for more than about 45 minutes. I'm tempted to return next week with a proper guide, but we probably wont. While none of us has yet, insha 'llah, been afflicted with the stomach problems that you might fear, the close heat has taken a toll on all of us over the past few days, particularly the girls who have been getting nosebleeds.
Staying with the theme of the spookiness of the dead, we continue to watch Buffy and have now started season four. Even Zoe admits that recent episodes are unsuitable for a seven year old, but it's unsuitable in a nice way, or as nice as any program featuring pretty much continual sex, violence and death can be. Do any of your kids watch it? While I haven't ever seen a whole episode of Hollyoaks, the other unsuitable program that Zoe watches regularly when we're at home, I bet Buffy offers a more positive influence. Anyhow, it's something we can all enjoy.
Posted: Sun - May 29, 2005 at 02:29 AM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM