Marrakech – A Beautiful Mosaic
The first full day of the final leg of our trip to Morocco began in quite a relaxed fashion, with the group meeting up for breakfast slightly later than usual on the rooftop terrace of our Riad. After fuelling up, we discussed our plans for the day, leaving the comfort of our hotel for the bustling streets and blistering heat of the Moroccan sun, which was forecasted to exceed 43 degrees.
The main itinerary item for our morning was a guided tour of some of the historically significant areas of the Marrakech medina, which translates to “old city”. The first stop on our tour was the famed Jemaa El-Fna square, which has existed in close to its current state for nearly a millennium. It’s wild to imagine the number of people who have travelled through this square since it first came to be. It was filled with stands selling street food and other miscellaneous shops, not to mention street performers, snake charmers, scooters, taxis, etc.
From there, we walked a short distance to the Koutoubia Mosque, which is Marrakech’s oldest and largest. It was damaged in a 2023 earthquake, and reconstruction efforts are still underway. We continued to the Mellah, known as the neighbourhood of salt due to the fact that it was previously inhabited by Jewish salt merchants. Our next destinations were the various subdivisions of Marrakech’s vast souks, which included the blacksmithing avenue, the spice and leather markets, and the wool and dye traders. Our final stop on the tour was the Madrasa Ben Youssef, which is a historic Islamic school. Founded in the 1600th century, it has attracted the smartest students since its opening hundreds of years ago.
We ended our tour with a delicious lunch, chatting and reflecting on everything we had experienced. Marrakech is hard to explain in words, but the diversity, history, tradition, evolution, and culture all boil down into this amazing mosaic as beautiful as the architecture, tapestries and artisanal crafts displayed everywhere. Once we had finished our lunch, we were quick to return to our hotel, as the heat was becoming too much to bear.
We spent most of the afternoon inside, until five o’clock, when we headed back across town to the spot where we were going for dinner, prepared by none other than us. We engaged in a cooking class on how to cook chicken tagine. As we put on our aprons, we knew we were in for a treat. It started with chopping veggies and adding them to our tagine pot with oil and spices. Next, we added herbs, chicken and finishing touches, putting the lid of the tagine pot on and leaving it to do its magic. While the tagines were cooking, we learned the Moroccan way of making their tea. Many steps, rules, and traditions go into making a pot of tea here; it’s almost like an art in itself.
We sat down, anticipating taking the first bites of our own creations. They were delicious! We then returned to the hotel for a quick recap of our day and chatted about what was to come tomorrow. We’re excited to beat the heat, heading to the Atlantic Coast of Morocco to the small city of Essaouira!
