Aziz- guide for Fez.

1st classified world heritage site in Morocco. Is first Arab city of Morocco….Moorish architecture.

13th century… old city Medina. New build 20th century. Walls built 17th century. … is the most Islamic Medina.

Royal palace…1968 facade. Walls from 14th and add-ins and grounds in 17th century.

All the roofs are open to the sky. Windows face inside… no outside, for privacy. Blue is colour of Fez as well as Jewish. Hand chiselled doors (workmanship of metalwork)

Jewish area buildings made from clay….have balconies over street. That is Spain influence. …Berber don’t do idols and pictures of religious symbols because they were nomadic. They made nothing that can’t be taken… so only artist leather, clothing, metalwork & or the like. Fez … known as trade and university centre. Jews started to arrive in 1492 after there was already a settlement here… the walls are I think, 13 feet thick.

Idris II… wanted Fez to be a trade centre. Made stop for travellers outside the Medina walls, 80 kms away.

Drove out and up to get panoramic view of Medina…. Huge!

The Medina was started in 789 AD. There are 9000 alleyways. It’s a maze! You could get lost in it and never find your way out of it. So many craftsmen (it’s a working city) and products for sale, carts being pulled and pushed through the narrow lanes. People bumping their way through. It is really quite something. 97,000 population inside walls. More outside.

The holes in walls is for drainage. Many are taken over by birds for nesting. On top of the gate in Jewish section had huge number of storks and their nests.

Lesson for the day…mule is cross between horse and donkey. They cannot breed.

Qaraouiyine is the oldest continuous university in world. The university founded in 856 by a woman, is all about Arabic language and religion. It was the only university in the country til 1957.

It takes 5 weeks from beginning to end to dye and produce the leather. They never kill the animal for the hide but for the meat and then use the hide.

There are 272 pillars of university/ mosque

Scarfs…. Made from silk threads of agave (did not know agave could produce a silk) is mixed with cotton or wool.

The mosque…carved in plaster…. No pictures just art. Everything must have inscriptions from Koran. 1323AD started to be built and opened 1325AD.

I wished that I could have taken videos or pictures of people and the crush but it is not acceptable.

Foggy along the coast. Seatbelts required by law.

While driving along the highway, Mustapha our CEO, filled in some info:

Rabat… capital city… French chosen capital. Independence in 1961….Kept Rabat as capital.

Almost every city has a King’s palace.

As we turn inland, we see a national park. There are a forest of oak cork. The bark has been stripped for the cork. Other side has eucalyptus for making paper. This is the green part of country… is rainy part… the breadbasket. Most farms are not irrigated… dependent on the rains that start in October. Lot veggies are exported. They also have vineyards. Major citrus producers. Pomegranates.

There are 12 states.

Little Atlas Mountains we pass today….

Middle Atlas Mountains used for grazing…. After we visit Fez.

High Atlas ….highest mountains in North Africa… prevents at 13,600 feet, the Sahara desert from moving further into Morocco. It gets to 50 +C in desert in summer but freezes and has snow in winter.

Anti-Atlas…. South of High Atlas… volcanic…. No snow, lots of minerals

Berber are the natives… speak Arabic but also own language… are Moslems. 68% of population have some Berber. Large Jewish sector… there are Jewish community centres near kings palace in every city….they brought economic prosperity to the areas

Berber and Arabic are 2 official languages. Although French is widely spoken, is the business language, it is not official. 2011 was when Berber language (a combination of 3 dialects) after being neglected for centuries, was made official and now taught in school. (Looks Greek and is written from left to right unlike Arabic)

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of garbage. Actually I saw someone picking up garbage with those pinchy things for picking up stuff. The farms are very organized… could be somewhere in North America (or Australia) although I did see “a” farmer using a horse and hand plow. Better that than the poor women with hoes hacking the dirt on the mountainsides in Uganda.

4th producer of olive oil in Mediterranean. Meknes state

Volubilis -had been inhabited since 3rd C BC-is a world heritage site …. Roman. Only inland site. 350 kms from sea. Limestone twisted pillars.

First populated by Berbers, then Romans and finally Arabs… Islam was first introduced here in the 8th century. Earthquake in 18th century buried it. It was discovered by French starting in 1915.

The surrounding area looks like Italy and Sicily. “Suburb” means the outside for poor people. Inside for patricians. 1755 earthquake, Volubilis was intact until then. Volubilis means morning glory. Agave has been planted to prevent soil erosion not for producing tequila. The city centre is the Temple. Storks nest is been taken over by sparrows. The guide said they are “squatters that took over the condominium”. It was occupied by the Romans from 25bc -285 ad.

4000 lived inside city. The 15,000 Berber slaves lived outside….In the suburbs. The Citadel or basilica … was most important

Agora… or forum means open place. (agoraphobia meaning “fear of open spaces”). There were 7 gates with 2.5 kms walls. Volubilis was famous for the mosaic floors of the Peristyle houses…. They were for the aristocracy…… to show off.

It is another scorcher again….39C or 102 F plus humidity.

The olive trees at the site were all dried and shrivelled because of drought the previous year…. Causes the cost of olives to rise.

We stopped for lunch at Association for women and children. It is a GAdventures sponsored Women’s workshop at M’haya

Meknes-1 million population. It was imperial city in the 17th century

Cement plant…. Export to other northern African countries.

2nd longest reigning kingdom in world …. Is the richest family in Morocco at 2.5,000,000,000 dirhams.

Medina, means walled old city. Each must have a souk meaning market, central square, casbah (seat of power) plus Jewish section. Residual area has bakery, public bath & Mosque. King used 60,000 sub-Saharan slaves to build it. Almost 45 kms of wall …. built in 17th Century.

Meknes Medina has had world heritage status since 1996.

French came in 1912

Fez was 1st capital …

Foggy along the coast. Seatbelts required by law.

While driving along the highway, Mustapha our CEO, filled in some info

Rabat… capital city… French chosen capital. Independence in 1961….

Kept Rabat as capital.

Almost every city has a King’s palace.

As we turn inland, we see a national park. There are a forest of oak cork. The bark has been stripped for the cork. Other side has eucalyptus for making paper. This jams the green part of country… is rainy part… the breadbasket. Most farms are not irrigated… depend on the rains that start in October. Lot veggies are exported. They also have vineyards. Major citrus producers. Pomegranates.

There are 12 states.

Little Atlas

Middle Atlas Mountains used for grazing

High Atlas ….highest mountains in North Africa… prevents at 13,600 feet, the Sahara desert from moving further into Morocco 50 +C in desert but freezes and had snow.

Anti-Atlas…. South of High Atlas… volcanic…. No snow, lots of minerals

Berber are the natives… speak Arabic but also own language… are Moslems. 68% of population have some Berber. Large Jewish sector… there are Jewish community centres near kings palace in every city.

Berber and Arabic are 2 official languages. Although French is widely spoken, is the business language but not official. 2011 was when Berber language (a combination of 3 dialects)after being neglected for centuries, was made official and now taught in school. (Looks Greek and is written from left to right unlike Arabic)

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of garbage. Actually I saw someone picking up garbage with those pinchy things for picking up stuff. The farms are very organized… could be somewhere in North America although I did see “a” farmer using a horse and hand plow. Better that than the poor women with hoes hacking the dirt on the mountainsides in Uganda.

4th producer of olive oil in Mediterranean. Meknes state

Volubilis -had been inhabited since 3rd C BC-is a world heritage site …. Roman. Only inland site. 350 kms from sea. Limestone twisted pillars.

First was Berber, then Roman and finally Arab… first introduced Moslem here in the 8th century. Earthquake in 18th century buried… discovery by French starting in 1915.

The surrounding area looks like Italy and Sicily. “Suburb” is the outside for poor people. Inside for patrician. 1755 earthquake intact until then. Volubilis means morning glory in English. Agave has been planted to prevent soil erosion not for producing tequila. The city centre is the Temple. Storks nest is been taken over by sparrows. They are squatters that took over the condominium. It was occupied by the Romans from 25bc -285 ad.

4000 lived inside city. The 15,000 Berber slaves lived outside….In the suburbs. The Citadel or basilica … was most important

Agora… or forum means open place. (agoraphobia… fear of open spaces). There were 7 gates with 2.5 kms walls. Volubilis was famous for the mosaic floors of the Peristyle houses…. They were for the aristocracy…… to show off.

I’ll have to post more pictures another time….too frustrating ….sorry again!

It is another scorcher again….39C or 102 F plus humidity.

The olive trees at the site were all dried and shrivelled because of drought the previous year…. Causes the cost of olives to rise.

Association of women and children

Lunch at a GAdventures sponsored Women’s workshop at M’haya

Meknes-1 million population. It was imperial city in the 17th century

Cement plant…. Export to other northern African countries.

2nd longest reigning kingdom in world …. Is the richest family in Morocco at 2.5,000,000,000 dirhams.

Medina , means old city. Has souk meaning market, central square, casbah (seat of power) plus Jewish section. Residence area has bakery, public bath & Mosque.

King used 60,000 sub-Saharan slaves.

Almost 45 kms wall …. built in 17th Century

Meknes Medina has had world heritage status since 1996.

French came in 1912

Fez was 1st capital …

Our CEO will be Mustapha….. nice guy that speaks wonderful English. All the people on tour (12) with the exception of one gal from Australia and us 3, are from the US.

We did nothing today but sleep in, get money from the ATM and rest up. I have not taken a take-a-break til today.

We got in late last night….. probably somewhere between 2-3am before hitting the pillow.

Street level of this area… not too far from the waterfront, is not too bad but looking at the surrounding area from the 14th and 17th floor, it looks like war torn zone with all the abandoned derelict buildings.

Mohamed picked us up to go to airport at 6:30 am… not too early. Traffic was light …. the city is quite small so it was easy. The airport was pretty easy too other than they wanted to see tickets (that are non-existe but are in the system and attached to our passports). That was a little angst creating but got through it. The rest was a breeze. I have to say that Luxor is like alparadise compared to much of the Middle East. It is an oasis in the desert.

It was only an hour on the flight to Cairo.

Kahleb picked us up as prearranged and took us to McDs for some breaky….. the slowest service ever!!

We are heading to the pyramids. OMG this city is humongous….. about 19 million. So many highways and so many apartments…. They all seem to be less than 12 stories.

Took a horse and buggy…. OMG what a dilapidated buggy and poor starving horse (rib cage showing)!!! Up and around the pyramids.

50USD for an hour of being jarred and then they want tip on top…!!! Some people are thinking this is all terrific. I just want to go home. It is annoying the hell out of me everyone with their hands out.

Drove by Coptic cemetery and got the T-shirt.

It is one of the best-preserved temple complexes of Ancient Egypt. Started 54 BCE

On our way we stopped on a bit of overpass to see Sphinx Avenue… 2 miles long road between Luxor and Karnak temples. 1050 sphinx’ line the road. Started to be built 1475 BCE … 6 kings took part in the building of it. It was previously covered with houses. The government paid the people that lived there to dig it out… starting 2006. It was opened in 2021.

We drove through desert and fertile fields, on super new highways and less than idea country roads along the way.

Papyrus papers lasts over 3500 years….discovered 1905

Dendara Temple, the tremble of Hathor … cow goddess, goddess of motherhood, music and love

You can see the damage the Christians trying to take cover from Romans did to the temple. They built fires that tarred the ceilings and walls, obliterated paintings and relief work by chipping that which they could reach and punched holes through the stone to put rings to hold the horses and donkeys.

Amazing and colourful temple like no others. Funny, I had never even heard of it. Ceilings about 50 feet (16 metres) high in first part, less as you travelled inside. The exterior had open air courtyard. The common people were not allowed into the inner sanctum …. Inner sanctum was only for priests & the hierarchy. All the astrological signs were shown. The colours are amazing and the details incredible and massive especially when you think of how long ago it was. The amount of inscription, etc….how long it took and how many artisans to do the work.

100 sq metre…8000 E pound 275usd/ month for rent. Most people rent. Farms are owned but passed from generation to generation.

Papyrus …1week in water for light colour, 2 weeks for dark.

Press for 1 o2 weeks

Population is now 400,000. Back Egypt’s day, it was a capital was called Thebes

Previous rulers were Ramses, Neferari …. & so many!

Tombs, mortuary cemetery on west … life (temples) on east.

Temple for mummification(70 days),Tombs of Valley of Kings.

410 tombs found so far. All because when the Nile flooded people built houses on side of hills to escape it. They would dig in their “basements” and found tombs.

Only 62 tombs found…. Only 8 open. Others are being restored.

Tutankhamen was only on with the tomb intact.

They started working on a tomb when come the king/pharaoh came to power. If tomb is incompleted, means they died at an early age. If completed, he/she was old when died

Purpose for building the tombs where there are, was to hide from them tomb robbers away from river. There still missing 8 more. King Tut (618 th dynasty) was found in Nov 1922. Ramses (19th dynasty) was built on top of Tut’s. 5000 golden items found. Osiris god of death gods In total there are 741.

Kartouch… oval shape with name king. Each had 2 names…. The one born with and the one as king.

God of mummification- jackal shape

Ram head is sun god

Headless people…. Enemies of Egypt and those the king defeated

Mask 10 kg of gold of Tut

The first one we went into was Ramses III

Ramses II ‘s tomb was built on top of Tut’s tomb. He had 48 wives and 200 children…. Lived 95 years … longest reigning king.

Next we went into Ramses IV- has the largest sarcophagus

Unbelievable that they could find any of these tombs amongst all the rubble of the mountains.

This area too is extremely hot…. about 45C. Inside was even hotter…a real sweat box.

Stopped where they make things in ancient way with alabaster, alabaster with phosphorus (Linda’s green kitty), etc. … is brought by donkey from 8 kms away.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut… 1st female pharaoh but she disguised herself as a man. During her reign ….19 years, there were no wars. She knew nothing of armies but developed the trade industries. After stepson took over after her untimely death by poisoning of blood stream. (It was from bad teeth), he erased a lot of the works about her and replaced it with his own stuff.

Up at 5am to catch a taxi to the airport. We are heading to Luxor, Egypt via Cairo.

The airport in Cairo, the signage left a lot to be desired.

We were picked up by Mohammed

Luxor Temple built 3500 years ago approximately. We stopped at “Snack Time” for lunch where overlooked the grounds

Palace of King Farouk, ruler of all Egypt and Sudan …. Now is a luxury hotel (Winter Palace) opposite the Nile River and all the riverboats

80% Moslem, 20% Christian … in Luxor.

Very rich fertile soil that is serviced by canals that are used for irrigation. This side on West Bank, the canal goes all the way to Cairo. There is one on the East bank too, that goes all the way to Alexandria.

There has been no flooding since the Aswan Dam was built.