Trifter

If you’re interested in the great medieval cities of Morocco, you’ll want to focus on the north of the country. Many tourists start with Marrakesh, but this is perhaps the least interesting of the great imperial cities. Consider instead spending more time in Fes – three different cities in one, with a modern commercial city, ‘new’ Fes (Fes el-Jdid), just four centuries old, and the medieval centre of Fes el Bali with its souk, shrines and medersas (religious universities).

The centre of Fes el Bali (’old Fes’) can be gloomy even at midday; narrow streets are shaded by high buildings on both sides, and sometimes run under the houses in narrow tunnels. Once you’re out of the market quarters, and off the main streets, it can be sepulchrally quiet – while in the most touristy areas you’ll be prey for touts and amateur guides.

Yet it’s worth persevering. A ‘garden circuit’ leads through the southern fringes of the city to fine, deserted aristocratic mansions, among streets where the smell of cedar and the clatter of hammers lead you to tiny carpenters’ workshops, and the scent of orange blossom drifts over the walls. To the north, the Merenid tombs dominate the hill above the city, eroded by time into mere hulks; at sunset, the cries of the muezzins echo across the city as the lights begin to flicker on, and Fes becomes its night-time self.

Meknes, an hour or so on the train from Fes, is often missed out of tourists’ itineraries, but it’s a lovely city – more intimate than Fes, much more laid-back, and with a charm that’s missing from many other Moroccan destinations. Part of this is down to the people of Meknes, who pride themselves on their courtesy and hospitality; you’ll be approached, but rarely hassled. Meknes is also a good base for a trip to Moulay Idriss, a charming white-painted town on two conical hills, and the Roman ruins of Volubilis.

While the doors in Fes are blue, in Meknes you’ll see green – each city has its colour. (Marrakesh, famously, is red, with walls covered in ochre.)

Rabat, on the Atlantic coast, is also worth a visit. The new city is full of modern French buildings, but there’s also the old city with its alleyways, white painted buildings, and fine decorated doorways; the Kasbah des Oudaias, where blue painted houses remind you of the Greek islands; and the ancient citadel of Chellah, where cats slink through the ruins of mosques and medersas, and white egrets squabble in the trees.

Over the estuary from Rabat is Salé – the pirate city, from which in the seventeenth century corsair fleets sailed to prey on shipping in the Mediterranean. Here is the great mosque and the tiniest, most cramped medersa in the country – here too the kissariat, little courtyards where gold jewellery is made and sold. Glass cases show ornate golden bridal tiaras and elaborate necklaces.

Finally, Marrakesh. Not the best place to start, perhaps – too many package tours have left many of the inhabitants grabby and overbearing. Djemaa el Fna is no longer what it was – the dentist doesn’t pull teeth these days, but charges tourists to take photos of him, and the kerosene lights are being discontinued in favour of electric lights. But there are still gnawa mystics beating their drums and dancing, there are still snakes (don’t be fooled by their limp, soggy demeanour; they are still cobras, and they can still get angry), there are still piles of snails to eat and fresh orange juice squeezed in front of you for pennies.

And Marrakesh has some interesting sights; the Saadian tombs, full of delicate tilework and stucco; some lovely mansions, a fine medersa, a massive souk. Stay long enough to get to know some of the back streets and you’ll make your own discoveries; the soup kitchens which serve thick bean soup for breakfast with a massive hunk of flatbread, the cul-de-sacs of the Kasbah, a whole yard full of kiosks serving banana and avocado smoothies.