Meknes - Morocco’s Forgotten City
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If Morocco’s imperial cities were women, Marrakech would be the party girl – outgoing, loud, lots of fun, but sometimes hard work. Fes would be the acclaimed beauty, always with a bit of mystery about her, while Rabat is the career woman, mixing modern with tradition.
And standing in the corner on her own, quieter than her sisters is Meknes. But if this fourth member of the quartet is often unnoticed, taking the time to discover the secrets behind the facade is well worth the effort.
Around an hour from Fes, Meknes was known as the Versailles of Morocco. Dating from the 11th century, the city rose to prominence in the 17th when it was briefly the imperial capital under Moulay Ismail, a contemporary of Louis XIV.
Not a man to do anything on a small scale – Moulay Ismail even asked for one of the French princesses for his wife, getting a pair of grandfather clocks along with the polite refusal – everything is big, from the Bab Alkhamees, otherwise known as the Happy Gate, or Thursday gate as it led to the weekly market, to the granaries which could keep the city supplied for 20 years.
The stables had room for 12,000 horses, while Moulay Ismail himself had 500 wives and concubines, 900 children, and used thousands of slaves to construct his capital, including a dank dark jail for 40,000 unlucky prisoners, under the Pavilion of Ambassadors.
Stop off at his tomb, inside one of the few mosques open to non Muslims. The shady courtyards lead to stunningly tiled and carved rooms, housing his tomb and those of his two successors and one wife. Marble covers the city thanks to his idea of swapping it for sugar with the Italians – to this day, Meknes is the agricultural heart of the country.
The last monument he built was the Bab Mansour gate, which used marble pillars from nearby Roman Volubilis, and today houses temporary exhibitions. Opposite this is the Square of Destruction, a huge open space, perfect for people watching, which leading to the medina, where the prices are cheaper than Fes and Marrakech, and the twisty streets are slightly wider.
Dodge the spice sellers and their chameleons, the buckets of live snails, and sticky sweets, buzzing with a small cloud of flies, and look for Meknes’ speciality, iron inlaid with beaten silver wire, surprisingly pretty.
The city’s other surprise is its fields of vineyards. A legacy of the French, they’re mostly foreign owned, growing a variety of well-known grapes, from Merlot to Syrah, as well as Pinot Gris, which produces a very drinkable light rose. To visit, you need to book in advance, but wineries like Les Celliers de Meknes run regular tours and tastings.
Read more about Fes and Meknes and the road less travelled.
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