> > These are shots mainly from outside the Medina, and on the > surrounding > > hills: > > http://www.web-options.com/Fezlife/ > > > > Don't worry - the onslaught won't go on much longer! > > Onslaught away. You are giving the impression of an almost > (rural? medieaval? I'm not sure how to phrase it) way of life > for many of the inhabitants. Is that actually the case? >
having no direct experience of medieval life I couldn't say for sure, but yes, it seems as if some aspects of life there have remained the same for centuries. When you get right down into the medina and find yourself surrounded entirely by people in djellabas it's easy to imagine that you've gone back in time. Underneath the djellabas though are western clothes, knock-off Rolexes and iPods same as us. It doesn't give me the same experience of being in another dimension that I get from large parts of Ethiopia, for example, which is like an episode of Star Trek where they've strayed into a dimension where the Earth just ain't quite what you thought it was. Outside the Medina, in the hills where you see the shepherd, the boy on the donkey and the gravestones are the Merenid Tombs. The Merenids were the previous royal dynasty, and their tombs have fallen into ruin. On top of the hill is the top luxury hotel where I bought my lunchtime chicken sandwiches and Coca Cola, but the hill itself is riddled with caves and according to my guidebook people still live in the caves. I didn't see anything that absolutely convinced me of that, but I didn't go looking. However, on the way down one evening I noticed people drawing water from a well among the graves (not the best place to put a well, I'd have thought), and unsaddled, unbridled mules wandering around like ghosts. People seemed to appear from nowhere and it all had rather a spooky atmosphere. Given the absence of other dwellings nearby that might have needed a well, I assume that these people lived in the caves. Mule and caves visible in this photo: http://www.web-options.com/Fez5.jpg Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
