Rabat--Chellah

This is a place where I would have been much smarter had I done a bunch of reading before arriving, but--I didn't. So I simply experienced it as it appeared.

 A walled and fortified area, with a picturesque drummer who greeted us with a syncopated tattoo accompanied by the twirling of the tassel of his headgear. It was a cheerful sound, and was probably meaningful in some way I didn't understand. It was also probably an opportunity to reward him with some dirham (Moroccan money). Kind of like the guys who dress up as gladiators in Rome and flirt and harass the tourists until they get paid to pose for photographs I guess.

More of the marvelous ornate carving--no longer painted, but a wonderful backdrop to the colorful drummer.

Inside are two separate sets of ruins--the Arabic ruins of the Maranids of the 13th century, and the older Roman remains from the same place. We walked the Maranid ruins first.

One of the first things we encountered were the storks. Chellah is along a river, and the storks have no sense of historic preservation, building their awkward nests on any high point they can find. The ruins of a 13th century minaret? No problem!

Other ruins were also acceptable, if they were elevated.

We walked down garden paths lined with blooming trees and plants, and a whimsically shaped "dragon tree."

One of the first structures we encountered was a sunken bath, surrounded by cats! Cats were everywhere! 

There was an elderly lady present (no photos, please!) who cared for the cats, making sure they were fed, and also fed the six or seven eels who lived in the water of the bath. Sadly, no photo of the bath either, and the eels were hard to see in the water.

Those eels were not just a curiosity, however, but a theological element of the place, which is actually a necropolis--a royal tomb in fact. One of the Maranid sultans and his family is buried here. The tomb has fallen into disrepair over the centuries, and some of the decorations were maybe salvaged for other uses in the interval? 

 Here you see the three main tombs, with one still covered by that distinctive Moroccan tile work.

Still vivid and gorgeous, some eight or nine hundred years later. 

But the eels! Are the spirits of the sultan and his family, which is why they are never caught and eaten, but instead are fed and cared for. 

Visiting Chellah was early in the trip, so I was not as used to the construction and decor conventions of Morocco, so I snapped some pictures of the remnants of tile work on the ruins, not realizing I would literally see these things everywhere. Still, ruins are kind of interesting and romantic, and here you can see the brickwork construction that was then covered in tile.

The complex included many different buildings, including a school for studying Quran. Our guide explained (the first of several times, he was very patient!) that studying Quran has been the prerequisite education. It's not itself like seminary, and once one has memorized the Quran, one can then go on to study anything--philosophy, mathematics, astronomy. It's not the entry into a religious profession; it is the entry into life.

There is a second site contained at Challah--a first century Roman village. The Romans came this far, but mostly just had outposts. The site has been picked over for centuries, and the entire place was badly destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It's important archeologically, but there isn't much to see by untrained eyes.

At least half of a marble statue remains. Our guide used it as a rostrum to finish talking about the site.

No pictures, but we encountered a school group of kids about 9-10 years old as we were walking around, and they were so excited to see foreigners that we ended up like celebrities, posing for selfies for the kids. 

Then it was off to the Kasbah!