Morocco is a fascinating country for an urban geographer. Most Moroccan cities have two main parts. The Medina which is the old part of the city dating back to medieval times, usually surrounded by walls. The Fes Medina is the biggest with over 200,000 people living within its walls. The gates to the Medina come in varying shapes and sizes, starting with massive! Although the doors are indeed massive in human terms they were built for the horse and cart.
This in turn determines what can and what cannot access the Medina. In most cases this means that large trucks, even small mini buses, cannot gain access to the walled part of the city. Inside the walls most of the normal components of a neighbourhood are to be found - mosques, schools, shops, fountains, hammams. The one component that is missing is open space. Homes inside the Medina are not evident to the visitor- they are usually upstairs with a business on the ground floor. While walking down a crowded alley with lots of visual interest all around, one doesn’t tend to look up. Even if you did, you wouldn’t “see” the living quarters because there are no street facing windows.
Although medinas are car and truck free, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily pedestrian friendly. Within the walls, donkeys, carts, bikes and motorbikes are used extensively, all jockeying for the limited space. Indeed, motorbikes or scooters have taken over the medinas - they are noisy and smelly, usually moving too fast in such restricted alleyways - however, we did not witness a single accident - much to our surprise. There have been attempts to control or limit motorbikes inside the Medina, but that is a lost cause! When first entering a Medina, there is a feeling of complete chaos, but it doesn’t take long to recognize that it is organized chaos with a certain rhythm, marching to a different drummer. Within each Medina there are speciality neighbourhoods - clothing, food, metal, leather, furniture, wedding dresses, tiles, marble.
While having a home inside a Medina has some appeal, there are some very real challenges. For example, getting an ambulance or fire truck to your home would be impossible. If you chose to move house, or simply moving your furniture and belongings within the Medina would be a very real challenge. Even doing renovations would be intimidating. We also noticed that the elderly and those with disabilities struggled - the surface is uneven, making it particularly challenging if using a walking stick or wheelchair. There is no place for kids to play. We saw a work crew fixing a drain in an alley - it was very hard for them to get any work done, the work crew was expected to give way to motorbikes and pedestrians rather than the reverse!
That part of the city outside the Medina is referred to as la nouvelle cité. Lots of mid-rise apartments, cars, trucks and buses, but also open space. Life in the two parts of the city is so very different, yet in such close proximity. I can but imagine the adjustments one would have to make if one were to move one’s home either into or out of the Medina
With the exception of Casablanca we ventured through the medinas in each of the cities visited, Although similar in many ways, each was a little different, with Essaouria being the most different because it is less crowded, more relaxed with many alleyways that were quite wide. Perhaps the sea air also made a difference.
There was one city that seemed out of place in Morocco- indeed, it could have been a Hollywood set for a Swiss resort. I’m referring to Ifrane. The lush greenery, cedar forests, and pastureland that comes to life in spring and winter is in sharp contrast to the hot and dry climate that surrounds it. Because of its accessibility, Ifrane serves as the winter playground for wealthy Moroccans from drier cites like Fez, Meknes, and Marrakech; they flock to experience a “European winter without leaving home”.
The town was built by the French in the 1930s, during the protectorate era, for their administration. What attracted the French, and now affluent Moroccans, is the cool climate during summer. As Fes and Meknes swelter in heat, Ifrane is pleasant and refreshing. In winter, temperatures frequently drop below freezing and the surrounding mountainside is blanketed in snow. Indeed, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Africa was in Ifrane at -24 °C.
Set high up in the Middle Atlas Mountains, Ifrane was to be a “hill station”, similar to what the British built in India. As the city was intended for expatriate European families, they were often designed in such a way as to remind their foreign inhabitants of their distant homelands. The architectural style and even trees and flowering plants were imported from the European home country. After independence from France, Moroccans moved into the city. They enlarged the town, built a mosque, a public market with other amenities soon added.