Our next stop, just four kilometers away from Moulay Idriss, was Volubilis, designated in 1997 as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and an important Roman town situated on the westernmost border of Roman conquests and built about 40 C.E. on the site of a previous Carthaginian settlement from the 3rd century B.C.E. Volubilis was the administrative center of the province in Roman Africa called Mauretania Tingitana. The Romans evacuated most of Morocco at the end of the 3rd century but not Volubilis. However, it appears to have been destroyed by an earthquake in the late fourth century A.D. In the sixth century, a small group of tombstones written in Latin shows the existence here of a Christian community. Many of the Roman mosaics are exceptionally well preserved despite weather, earthquakes, and centuries of viewers. Some plundering of stone and pillars occurred over time with materials used at Hassan's Tower in Meknes and other sites.
At Volubilis, Aziz provided maps and information and we wandered the extensive site on our own for a couple of hours and picnicked among the ruins and the profuse calendulas or at the nearby cafe so we could add a strong coffee to the groceries bought at Moulay Idriss. That gave Driss and Hassan (with Aziz and others as onlookers) a break to pursue their ongoing contests of draughts, a close relative of American checkers, but with more squares on the board.
Driving away from Volubilis toward Fez, we glimpsed nomadic Berbers setting up a tent, stitching together seams with a practiced hand.
And it's on to Fez, the cultural center of Morocco and its artisans. Fez is also the oldest city in Morocco and its medina is divided (unlike other places) into Old Fez and New Fez. The latter was founded in the 14th century, so the descriptor "new" is rife with irony. Sightseeing with our well-spoken guide Azdin included the Sanctuary of Moulay Idriss II, the Karouine Mosque, the south side hilltop fortification tower, a Jewish synagogue and cemetery, and the suq (market) in the old medina. The latter is an absolute maze; the many twists, turns, dead-ends, and intersections--not to mention the masses of people and donkeys and carts vying for walking space--give strangers nightmares about getting lost. Included were stops at a major pottery cooperative and a tannery. Workers generally are paid by the piece, and workplaces don't consider worker comfort at all; each person crouches or squats or sits cross-legged as best he can to do his task. The buildings proliferate in laundry lines, for obvious reasons, but juxtaposed to row upon row of sattelite dishes, as though demented gardeners were at work cultivating every balcony and rooftop.
Local guide Azdin has just told us the prices of gold in Morocco, causing most of us to gasp and dismiss the idea of any acquisitions. In general, Morocco shopping is not at the cheap end on the world-wide scale...but it is imperative to bargain and haggle. The shopkeepers and roadside stands all expect the process. They state a price firmly, you come back at one-third to one-half, they grimace in dejection and counter with a small drop of initial price, you shrug and start to walk away, they offer a lesser price as though it was hurting, and so on. When an agreement is reached, there are grins all around, sometimes a small extra gift to you (which makes me suspect I've not gotten a very good price!), often some applause in larger shops and cooperatives; it's considered good luck if you are the first buyer of the day.
Fez pottery typically features blue on white designs, what the locals call Fakhari or as known by the French Bleu de Fez.
Situated in a steep-sided valley, the Fez area is rich in mineral deposits and has flourished as a ceramics center for many centuries. The two commonly used clays come from Bin Jelleih, 12 km north: from the upper strata comes a yellow-creamy clay used mainly for unglazed pottery, such as jars and vessels for carrying water; from the lower strata comes clay for pottery left to dry in the sun before being biscuit-fired in kilns and transformed to a clear white color ready for decoration. Folks in Fez very much look down their noses at the terra cotta red pottery made elsewhere.
Garden fountains of mosaic designs that we longed to possess; but none of our luggage was THAT expandable. At the right, stacks of sun-dried tajine pots and below an array of finished ones; tajine is the national dish, with lots of variations and great diversity in quality of taste.
The sealed kiln; fuel used includes the dried chip leftovers from the olive oil presses.
