Morocco

This is the great mosque of Casa Blanca begun in the late 80's and finished in the early 90's. It is an enormous structure, inside and out, and they explained that it is the third largest mosque in the Muslim world (second to one in Damascus and Baghdad I think), but it has the largest minaret in the Muslim world. Inside it was huge, open and cool, with very intricate decoration that closely resembles much of the Muslim architecture that we had been observing throughout Andalusia and Morocco. In other words, they still use much of the same designs that they have for the last several hundred to a thousand years. I was awed by their structure.
 




After the mountains and Chefchaouen, we came down into the capital city of Rabat, and urban and much more westernized center. While there, among all of the interesting academic discussions and visits, for lunch we went out to visit an organic farm. Here you see a tent that the nomadic tribes of Northern Morocco would use to protect them from the heat and sun, which covered us while we ate (though it was still pretty hot). Among other things, this shelter shows the mixture of cultures within morocco: urban/rural/nomadic etc.

 In the afternoon we took a walking tour of the old city (the Medina) with some college students at the university of Rabat. It is a beautiful part of the the city, right along this river that you see and where it empties into the see. We went up along the wall that is on the left and looked out over the Atlantic, passed an ancient minaret, and rested in the cool sea breeze. Here you see the mouth of the river and in the distance the ocean; this was a refuge for pirates in the 19th century and before, pillaging European vessels and then coming in here to dock, take stock of their booty, and hide from retaliation

After a long day out in the rural villages of the Rif mountain range in northern Morocco, we returned to our small hotel where our guide had arranged for some local musicians to come and visit us. One of them read poetry, and the other two played their traditional instruments and sang traditional music. It was very soothing, very pleasant, and meant a lot more when I got to see them than when I just heard the music playing in the background somewhere or over the radio. The man in the middle leads a music school there, and the young man nearest to me is an up-and-coming musician, and the lead singer in this group, around Morocco, so we were honored to have him sing for us. It was really a great end to a grueling day.