Incidentally, I hope I'm giving a balanced picture. I do try to avoid taking photographs that only match my prejudices or expectations, and I do try to show people as individuals living their lives, not as archetypes of orientalism or anything. Those are the traps that tourists often fall into with their photos, and I want to avoid that, while admitting that I'm only there for a week so my pictures can only be very superficial.
Bob > > > > 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.
