Camel Burgers, Roman Ruins, and Street Food

We unfortunately had to leave our premium accommodations (seriously nice hotel) to continue our adventure. Khalid had arranged for us to get a local guide to show us around the Meknes Medina, as much of it has been under construction for years. The advantage of having a guide, is that you get to learn a lot more about where you’re wandering. 

We started off wandering through one of the newer sections of the Medina, that used to be part of the Royal palace before the quake in 1755. After the quake and many years of neglect, locals started to build their homes into the remnants of the old palace. In the current time, some of the funding gathered for the restoration (many Medinas in Morocco have achieved UNESCO World Heritage status) has been used to update the outer façades of these homes (new wooden doors and awnings, fresh painted walls, etc) as well as improve the sewer system and electricity supply. What once was one of the less desirable areas, is now pretty spiffy (at least from the outside). 

Outside the Kasbah is a large public square called el-Hedim (or Place el-Hedim), meaning "the rubble". The name comes from the masses of rubble and debris which were piled here during the demolition that took place during Sultan Ismail’s reign (later 1600s to early 1700s). In modern times, the square is used for stalls and restaurants during the day and touts and storytellers in the evening (pre Covid). 

The Dar Jamal Museum was built in 1882 as a palace for Mokhtar ben Arbi el Jama'i, who, along with his brother, served as Grand Vizier under Sultan Moulay Hassan. It was passed to a few other people, then became a French hospital, and later a military court during French colonial rule. In 1920, it because a Museum of Indigenous Arts. Currently, it houses exhibits on the various musical instruments and styles found throughout Morocco. The exhibits are very good and by venturing inside you will come the closest you can to the feel of how one of the nicer homes would have looked back in time when the Medina and Kasbah were in their heydays. 

After our jaunt through the music halls, our group was in for a treat, with lunch at a local shop. The business is designed to only cook that which is brought there. They supply nothing themselves, but residents buy their ingredients elsewhere and then bring it to the chef, who specializes in grilling. The meal selected for our group; camel burgers. Mary, Khalid, Brian and Nathan, all enjoyed this delicacy, while Em and I got the “picky eater’s” special of grilled turkey. It was pretty good, if a little dry (only meat in bread). The others said the camel was decent and tasted similar to beef.

We thanked our cook and host and headed back to the van to leave Meknes. Just outside Meknes (about 10 miles away), is the Berber-Roman city of Volubilis, our next destination. The city was founded in the 3rd century BC and grew rapidly under Roman rule in the 1 century AD, until it fell to local tribes in 285 AD. The city then passed through a number of hands until the Lisbon quake of 1755, which took out much of the city and left it as the ruins seen today (the quake plus the looting of stone to rebuild Meknes in the 18th century led to its ruination).

Even in ruins, the city contains some well preserved partial buildings and many wonderful mosaics. During its heyday, Volubilis was very prosperous from its sale of olives and olive oil (the entire Meknes valley is known for is fertile black soil). This prosperity lead to the construction of many town-homes with mosaic floors. Many of these floors have been restored and visitors can see Artemis turning a peeping Tom into a deer for spying on her with a female attendant at the bath house; Bacchus getting a girl pregnant just by looking at her; the twelve trials that Hercules had to complete, and many others. They’re all in remarkably good shape for being thousands of years old.

We left the ruins and headed to Fes, our home for the next two nights.

In Fes, we’re staying in the new part of town, a little bit away from the Medina. Tomorrow we will visit the Medina and get a tour, but for the evening, some approved street food is on the menu. Our guide is a little paranoid and reserved when it comes to recommending street food and seems to think Em and I are a tad insane for just buying whatever looks tasty. He is constantly asking: “and you’re ok?” “You’re stomach does get wreaked?” We’ve rarely been super sick from street food and it’s one of our favorite things to try in new countries. 

So for tonight, Khalid took the entire group to a place around the corner that he deemed safe. The restaurant specializes in meat skewers and a type of homemade vegetable soup. The skewers come with about six small bites of meat each and the soup comes in a big bowl with more bread (this country thrives on bread of all types and may lead to me gaining pounds before I leave). It was delicious and I topped it off with some more bread…one that looked like honeycombs and was served with drizzled honey on top, and then a bit of gelato (which is sadly lacking in this country…it’s more of sugary ice milk than true ice cream or gelato).

All in all, today was a good adventure.