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Published: February 20th 2020
Nearly every day thus far in our journey around Morocco, like a good omen, good weather had followed us. Waking up on Day 7 in Erfoud, we found the weather was once again nearly perfect. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the air was warm and pleasant. In early morning, the Sahara has a subtle way of exerting its influence on its visitors -- an unhurried calmness which overtakes the senses while dreaming of what the day will bring. We always looked forward to the day's adventures, but it would be the evening that we most anticipated.
Staying at the Kasbah Xaluca Maadid Hotel had been a delight as it was yet another example of the many types of accommodations we would experience while in Morocco. This hotel had a lot of positives and no negatives to it that we could see. In addition to its good location so close to Erg Chebbi and even the border to Algeria, the hotel could rightly have been a destination in itself.
Our Room # 187 located in a one-story adobe brick building was charmingly furnished as an upscale desert camp and constructed with traditional materials such as ceilings
made of natural log and rush, Moroccan tile, local rock with embedded marine fossils, and textiles. But, it also had modern amenities such as air-conditioning, and TV though they didn't see much use as we were out of the room most of the day and night. The most remarkable feature of our room was the large sink in the dressing area which was hewn out of a single rock slab embedded with sea fossils, a geological phenomenon that this area is famous for and which we would learn about later in the day. Along with other possibilities for entertainment and relaxation, the Xaluca had a lovely spa with hammam that I was anxious to try, but daily activities kept us so busy that there was little time, if any, to take advantage of it.
The group gathered once again in Restaurant Tizimi for a buffet breakfast, with its beautifully painted wood beam ceiling, t to start off the day. The food was just as bountiful and presented as attractively on this morning just as it had been for dinner the evening before. What seemed like only minutes later, it was check-out time as we had a very full day
ahead of us visiting Sijilmassa and Rissani and our guide, Larbi, was a master at keeping us on schedule. Our day would end with the most anticipated event of the trip -- riding camels into the Erg Chebbi dunes to see a spectacular sunset followed by spending the night in the Sahara Desert at the Bivouac Etoile tent encampment.
We left our luggage stored at the Xaluca until we would return here for lunch later in the afternoon. But now, marvelous people and places were to be seen in the hours that lay ahead. On our way to the town of Rissani, but just a few miles north, lay the historic ruins of Sijilmassa, a national historic site which seems to still be undergoing some excavation. Oddly enough, the ruins, which extend for five miles along the River Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis, have not yet been given the UNESCO World Heritage Site status which I would have suspected given its historical importance to Morocco.
Sijilmassa dates to the 8
th century and was not only the capital of the Berber Kingdom, but a very important gold trade center. Lonely Planet describes it as a “major staging post for
trans-Saharan trade, when caravans of up to 20,000 camels would depart for the salt mines of what is now modern-day Mali, then continue to Niger and Ghana, where a pound of Saharan salt was traded for an ounce of African gold.” One can only imagine the chaos that an event on this grand scale would engender. It must have been magnificent!
Sijilmassa’s history was long but also finite. Perhaps its ruin was also predictable because as the apocryphal Berber saying goes, “where there’s gold, there’s trouble.” Sijilmassa was destroyed and rebuilt, but its final destruction came at the hands of the Aït Atta nomadic warriors in 1818.
The ruins look like crumbling sand castles among dunes. As the site was moreorless cordoned off to visitors, I could only see remnants of walls, archways and what looked like a short tower with a rounded clay roof. On the surface it seemed the only remaining architectural features identifying Sijilmassa were the pervasive small, evenly spaced square and round holes in the walls making Sijilmassa unlike any other sites we would see. But so little of it is left today that envisioning it as it was is almost impossible today. So
we'll have to rely on guidebooks such as Lonely Planet, or on history books. We might have been interested in one of those glossy photo books on Sijilmassa if there were any to be found; unfortunately, we didn't find any, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that such books/pamphlets don't exist here unlike in European countries where pamphlets on historic places are more commonly sold.
Several times I found that referrals to the town of Rissani were used interchangeably with that of Sijilmassa, but I will refer to them here as separate entities. Rissani, for the most part, seemed to be a rather ordinary town which held no particular charm for me but for one place: the Mausoleum of Moulay Ali Cherif, founder of the Alaouite Dynasty.
Hidden away from the dusty streets of Rissani, the entrance to the mausoleum is gained through what I think surely must be the most beautiful gate in all of Morocco, though I am sure some may disagree.
We were welcomed into the courtyard by a tall gentleman of the Tuareg Berbers wearing traditional dress. His long light blue kaftan or gandoura was emblazoned with intricate orange and white embroidery
designs and hung to his ankles while showing just a bit of long trousers. Upon his head he wore a cheche of royal blue though his face was left uncovered, and upon his feet he wore traditional pointed leather slippers. His eyeglasses lent him a studious look; it was difficult not to stare as he cut such a striking figure. I thought he might be a guide for the mausoleum but our own tour guide played that role.
The courtyard is like a small green oasis of peacefulness divided by patterned tile walkways into 4 garden quarters dominated by towering date palms and a traditional fountain taking center place. The entire courtyard is surrounded by beautiful, arched-column colonnades on all sides.
While non-Muslims are allowed to enter this part of the mausoleum, they are not allowed in the space containing the tomb of Moulay Ali Cherif. Nor did we enter the mosque though we could see inside. The mosque’s floor was completely covered in Moroccan-style red carpets and pierced-metal chandeliers hung from the ceilings -- a beautiful place to honor Ali-Cherif, founder of the Alaouite Dynasty, from which the current King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, is descended.
At some point after visiting the mausoleum, just outside the gate we were approached by the locals trying to sell us their wares. One man had an armful of lengthy cotton scarves dyed in vivid colors. Several people in our group bought these long scarves for only 20 dirhams (US$2 each) as our guide, Larbi, promised to teach us how to tie them on our heads in the turban fashion of a Berber chech. Though our faces were not Moroccan faces and our clothing was not Moroccan, wearing these chechs had a way of making us feel closer to our Berber hosts, and produced an unexplained excitement which clearly was shown on our faces. Some of us wore the chechs for the better part of the afternoon and beyond.
Never missing a chance to visit a market or souk on this trip, we visited Rissani's too. We found that Rissani’s was smaller than what we had seen in Fes and would see in Marrakesh; nevertheless, Rissani’s market had a mix of clothes, household items, a good variety of colorful fruits, crates of vegetables, bags of spices, and olives, and box upon box of golden brown dates for sale. Unfortunately,
though I would have loved trying them, the sticky sweet dates were left uncovered and they had become a draw for flying insects which made them less of a draw for me!
Like other places known for creating much loved and special foods, Rissani is rather famous for being the birthplace of a culinary treat called “medfouna,” sometimes known as “Berber Pizza.” Medfouna means “buried” which refers to the fact that the center of a large, round khobz bread is stuffed with meat, onion, fresh herbs and spices, sometimes vegetables, and then baked in an oven or sandpit. Like pizza, medfouna has many variations according to one’s tastes or even in composition (such as no khobz bread, and only a mound of meat covered in vermicelli placed on a dish); some people liken medfouna to the Italian calzone but without the cheese. We visited a rather rudimentary bakery where the round discs of flat khobz bread had been baked and were on display but no medfouna.
While nearly everything we had seen to this point in our visit to Morocco seemed ancient, in reality, none of it was even in the ballpark with what we saw next.
A short Moroccan geology lesson: During the Devonian period, roughly 415 to 350 million years ago, sometimes called the “Age of Fishes,” Morocco was covered by a vast prehistoric ocean. The areas we now know as Rissani and Erfoud in the Sahara Desert were covered by water. As the ocean retreated, land and climate changed, much of the diverse sea life and prehistoric life died and sank to the bottom and suffered extinction. However, amazingly, today the remains of this sea life have been found preserved in sedimentary rock. For approximately 50 years, these marine fossil-embedded rocks have been quarried, processed, carved and polished to turn them into any number of objects: tables, bathtubs, sinks, floor tile, art objects, jewelry, chessboards and so much more.
We were lucky to visit the “Macro Fossiles Kasbah,” owned by 4 brothers who process the rock, cut and polish it to produce amazing objects while still preserving the marine fossils. A gentleman gave us a brief but excellent talk on the genesis of the marine fossils, some of the surrounding geography and explanation of what must be done to find and extract rock without damaging the fossils, then a very good tour of
the workshops. This was quite an education and I thought it very worthwhile.
And, because I found it completely fascinating, given the opportunity to go through the showroom, I was happy that we bought several small, but unique objects as gifts for family members at very reasonable prices and even a piece for ourselves which might be one of the most interesting souvenirs we've brought back from of all our travels.
Lunch was back at the Kasbah Xaluca hotel dining room, and just having a relaxing atmosphere and some down time was very welcomed too at this point in the afternoon.
The day had been full of interesting sights and places so far, but the best sights of the day were yet to come!
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Medfouna
I didn't come across this dish, and I think I would have really liked it! Did you notice that most of the insects attracted to the sweet treats in markets were bees? Less gross than flies, but still weird. We visited the Sahara further south at Erg Chigaga, so didn't experience this this region of Morocco - it sounds fascinating! :)