Bob W wrote:
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
Precisely what I was curious about. Although it may be superficial, the
folks of Fez seem to have retained a lot more of their culture/heritage
than other peoples around the world have managed.
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
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