Reason 612 Why I Love (Rural) Morocco: To quote more than a few shop owners, who more often than not just hang a sheet or lean a broom across the front of their shop when they go home for lunch, “There are no thieves here.”
Tag Archive for desert
Aside
Reason 584 Why I Love Morocco: The hot season and the watermelon season are in near perfect alignment.
Culture, History, Life, Nature, Peace Corps, Photography, Travel
Local Ksars (Ksor)
• 0 Comments
Yesterday, I went with my friend, Slimane, on an extended bike ride to explore some local Ksars, or Ksor to use the Arabic plural. Ksars are older, enclosed communities whose expansive structures used traditional construction methods, such as mud, hay, and palm trunks. Think of them as expanding apartment complexes that emerged organically around oases. Some…
Culture, History, Nature, Odd, Peace Corps, Photography, Travel
Desert Sculptures Part One: Golden Spiral
• 1 Comment
Way out in the desert (seriously, it was a long, long walk), There are three desert sculptures, or art/home installations, built by German Artist, Hannsjörg Voth. From the town of Jorf, or sometimes El Jorf, it’s about a seven mile hike to the nearest piece. Then, it’s several miles between each of them. We thought we…
Aside
Reason 531 Why I Love Morocco: Midnight rides through the desert on a darkened bus enables an incredible view of the stars and moon without clouds or light pollution.
Africa, Awareness, Culture, Life, Observations, Photography, Religion, Travel
Mauritania
• 0 Comments
There is something about less visited countries that draws me toward them. I want to see a jewel in the rough, to give attention to the underdog. I want to see something rare, something fewer people have seen, something worth talking about, something that challenges me in unexpected ways. Due to a very low population,…
Culture, History, Nature, Peace Corps, Photography, Travel
Desert Qanats
• 3 Comments
On the margins of the Sahara Desert, the isolated oases of the Draa River valley and Tafilalt have relied on qanat (locally khettara) water for irrigation since the late 14th century. In Marrakech and the Haouz plain, the qanats have been abandoned since the early 1970s, having dried up. In the Tafilaft area, half of…
Africa, Culture, History, Travel
Amazigh Agadirs
• 1 Comment
Not to be confused with the city of Agadir that was destroyed by an earthquake and later rebuilt into a tourist destination, but rather, the traditional buildings that gave the city its name. Throughout southern Morocco are the remnants of what was once a thriving Amazigh (Berber) culture that extended over most of North Africa. Before the arrival…
Aside
A fairly standard water jug wrapped in burlap to keep it cool. Atop sits the communal cup.
Reason 735 Why I Love Morocco: Nearly every shop, and many households, have water jugs outside for any passersby who may need a drink.
(Compare this to the privatization of water supplies in much of the West.)
Aside
Reason 604 Why I Love Morocco: A man can look definitively masculine despite wearing what the West might see as a dress.
