We took a day trip from Fez to Meknes......... about an hour by freeway.
First stop was the Heri es-Souani.... the immense Royal Stables and Granary.
The stables housed 12,000 horses and the granary held enough feed for 20 years!
The roof of the stables was destroyed in an earthquake in the 18th century...
..however the extremely thick walls of the granary survived the earthquake....
.... horses pulled the water wheels to bring up fresh water from the reservoir below....
We had hoped to visit the Mausoleum....... but it was closed for renovation!
Then on to the Medina.... via Bab Mansour... or rather around the side of it as it is only rarely opened!
It seems it is a good place to people watch, rest, or gather up courage to cross to the square avoiding the fast moving traffic!
The gate looks across to the el-Hedime square...
where one takes one's life in one's hands to cross the road in-between....no traffic lights and the blue taxis do not even hesitate!
We were intent on visiting an old Medersa within the Medina...
This Medersa Bouanania is no longer in use... and there were no tourists there!
This was built around 1345! And apparently has never needed to have renovation work done on it.
The students shared cells which were on the small side and apparently they prepared food etc within them!
But the Hammam was huge....
The Medersa may have closed but there is now a more modern school close by....
First stop was the Heri es-Souani.... the immense Royal Stables and Granary.
The stables housed 12,000 horses and the granary held enough feed for 20 years!
The roof of the stables was destroyed in an earthquake in the 18th century...
We had hoped to visit the Mausoleum....... but it was closed for renovation!
Then on to the Medina.... via Bab Mansour... or rather around the side of it as it is only rarely opened!
The gate looks across to the el-Hedime square...
where one takes one's life in one's hands to cross the road in-between....no traffic lights and the blue taxis do not even hesitate!
We were intent on visiting an old Medersa within the Medina...
This Medersa Bouanania is no longer in use... and there were no tourists there!
This was built around 1345! And apparently has never needed to have renovation work done on it.
The prayer nook for the Immam....facing east to Mecca when he prays....
Beautiful Zellij tilework...
We did climb to the roof to see the Grand Mosque, built prior to the Medersa......obviously we could not enter it.....
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