Morocco Images 2020 - Rabat II (Fixed)

February 7, 2020

Rabat and its country are ancient with even its modern North African roots sunk deeply into the Middle Ages. Unsurprisingly then, Morocco's culture is steeped in tradition and traditional roles.

As always, click upon any image to make it BIG!

Plate 5

Ramparts mingle with the ruins of Rome then medieval Europe. Cultural traditions confront secular influences muscling from just North of the country across the Gibraltar Straights. Consequently this centrally hierarchical system  depends upon a need for gatekeepers and tastemakers

Plate 6

 Rabat is a port city and a vacation playground for Western Europe. So the wealthy 'foreigner' mingles ideas and feelings with the swirl of inherited Berber and Arab traditions. 

Plate 7

The guy below? He's a 'Water Man' whose traditional career's been handed down through his family. Career? Uh-huh. In Morocco it's illegal to charge for water. But a guild of men delivered the liquid and are still paid for their service. I'm guessing though that his pay in tips for photographic modeling overwhelms water deliveries in a modern city that's got a sophisticated water treatment and piping system. 

Plate 8

As both the nation's capital and one of its four royal cities, Rabat houses the nation's king and court when they visit. Each of Morocco's four Royal cities hosts a palace housing hundreds of family retainers. All of their inhabitants maintain an inherited job. The nation's constitution provides for an elected parliament but the King still commands this nation's military. Representatives of each of the armed forces in dress uniform stand duty daily in defense of king and retinue. The appeal of tradition is useful to sustain the system in power. 

Plate 9

A force that also stands ceremonial duty at tombs of past Kings and historic sites. Tradition's been called 'the tyranny of the dead'.

Plate 10

Unsurprisingly then, the tombs of revered past king's of Morocco are defended by a Royal Guard who seem somehow angelic in their ritualistic presence.

Next,Morocco II: on the road between Rabat and the Royal City of Fez: a stop at the ancient Roman city of Volubilis - soon. Stay tuned. 

Morocco Images 2020 - Rabat I

February 7, 2020
As always, click upon any image to make it BIG!

Passing the salt, my wife Rita curiously said, "I'd kinda' like to see Morocco."

Dishes clanked midst a gaggle of conversations that 2019 April night at Funk's Restaurant in Leola. We ate with Gib and Marti Armstrong.

"I can do that, and how about we add some Paris days at the end?" Gib, our amateur travel hobbiest grinned, "When?"

Come August we'd enlisted 8 couples into a GateOne tour set to fly from JFK...

Now, 14 days back in Lancaster...  Here are some, well, questions - yeah, that's what these images are. Sparks for sudden stories about the Berber/Arab Kingdom and its 36 million people ruled now from 4 royal cities (Rabat, Fez, Marrakech, and Casablanca) by Mohammed VI and an elected parliament.

Look: what happening here is NEITHER a travelogue nor a documentary. Nope, just a collection of share-able feelings. Wanna know facts? That's what Wikipedia does. Instead let's start here... Because, well duh.. that's where we started...

Plste 1

Once the Western edge of Rome's African bread-basket the country blended into a Berber/Arab culture beginning in 788 and continued to serve (much as Turkey does in the West) as an overland causeway between Europe and everywhere else. So it's strewn with fragments of ancient diaspora. Curiously primal-rubble includes some of the world's richest fossil fields: Which mingles traces of geological ages and cultures. Also, like Turkey (well until recently), the nation's Muslim culture is a somewhat more secular one of accommodation with its neighbors north of the Gibraltar Straight. They sell whiskey.

Plate 2

Italy? Austria? Perhaps Netherlands or French countryside? Morocco's found a way of blending European elegance with Arab and mountain-Berber nostalgia.

Plate 3

But in this "Cold country with a warm sun" - people aren't European or Middle Eastern nor like other African places I've visited. Uh-uh... 

Plate 4

Many places fly flags... Yeah, Moroccan's do that. but proudly everywhere there are images of Muhammed VI. It's complicated, huh?

Think at me...  Art communicates symbolically. I've found short stories resonate in Moroccan moments like these. Do they spark your feelings? How? 

Stay tuned, Rabat II's coming...