Better Than a Mirage
SIWA OASIS
Western Desert, Egypt
Covering two-thirds of Egypt and the antithesis of the green Nile Valley, the Western Desert (an extension of the Sahara) is punctuated by a handful of exotic oases. Picturesque Siwa, 30 miles from the Libyan border on a centuries-old caravan route, is the most remote, with dates and olives long known as some of the finest in the world. Despite the recent arrival of television and a steady but growing trickle of adventure tourists (more than a dozen modest hotels now welcome guests), it remains an intriguing desert outpost. Siwan culture and customs continue much as they did when Alexander the Great visited in 331 B.C. to consult the legendary Oracle of Amun (the discovery of Alexander’s alleged tomb here made headlines in 1995).
Siwi, a Berber tongue, is spoken here instead of Arabic. Siwan women, while not often seen in public, are almost always veiled in black, and many still wear their hair in numerous braids, as their Berber ancestors did, and cover themselves with large, ornate silver jewelry. Houses are made of kershef (mud, salt, and straw), and the more than 300,000 palms and 70,000 olive trees attract a robust bird population, including harriers, owls, wagtails, and warblers. All of it is sustained by 300 springs and freshwater streams. The most famous is near the Temple of Amun ruins, a bubbling pool called Cleopatra’s Bath—first described by Herodotus in the 5th century B.C. and still used for fully clothed bathing (though rarely by women). Day trips on horseback take riders to more springs on the outskirts of town, then into the Great Sand Sea, where jeeps climb the dunes and thrill seekers surf the sand on modified snowboards.
Within a lush grove of date palms lies the magical Adrère Amellal, a 40-room lodge bent on proving that luxury and nature are not mutually exclusive. There is no electricity, no phones, and no nightlife; instead, you’ll find kershef houses, candlelit alleys, exquisite dinners made from whatever is growing in the hotel’s organic garden, and excursions into the desert. The owner’s dedication to environmental and cultural conservation is similarly reflected in Shali Lodge, his humbler hotel in the nearby 13th-century Siwa village.
WHERE: 461 miles/762 km southwest of Cairo. ADRÈRE AMELLAL: Tel 20/2-736-7879; www.adrereamellal.net. Cost: from $660, all-inclusive. SHALI LODGE: Tel 20/2-738-1327; www.siwa.com/shalilodge. Cost: from $65. BEST TIMES: Nov–Mar to avoid scorching days and mosquitoes; 3 days surrounding Oct full moon for the Siwa Festival.
A Windsurfer’s Paradise
ESSAOUIRA
Morocco
The walled port of Essaouira is perched above some of Morocco’s finest beaches, with dunes that unfurl for miles to the south. The city’s relaxed atmosphere—along with its exotic medina and stalwart stone ramparts—first attracted backpackers and hippies here in the 1960s (Jimi Hendrix and Cat Stevens each came to drop out). Today’s young visitors come for some of Africa’s best wind- and kite surfing. Along with excellent shopping for local crafts and the arty ambience, these sports make Essaouira one of Morocco’s favorite destinations—particularly in June, when thousands arrive for the 5-day Gnaoua and World Music Festival to hear the hypnotically rhythmic and joyful music of the Gnaoua, descendants of black slaves.
The medina and fortifications were designed in the 18th century by Théodore Cornut, a French architect held prisoner here by Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah; the sultan liked the orderly city plan and rewarded Cornut with freedom. The car-free medina is a delight to explore, and many galleries feature the work of local artists (particularly marquetry made of indigenous thuya wood and lush, colorful canvases created by Gnaoua painters during mystical trances). You’ll also find local products like rich argan nut oil, used in all manner of beauty products. The busy fishing port is where you come eye-to-eye with lunch: Pick your fresh-caught favorite (sardines, sea bass, and squid are delicious choices) and the fishmonger grills it right in front of you.
Many of Essaouira’s historic riads (multistory mansions built around central courtyards) have been converted to small inns and hotels. The simple and stylish Villa Maroc has 21 rooms with blue-painted balconies and gardens filled with jasmine and bougainvillea; the spa offers massages that use local argan oil and has a private hammam. The best part just might be breakfast on the open-air roof terrace. The nearby Ryad Watier began a century ago as a school. Master craftsmen recently transformed the classrooms into ten very spacious guestrooms, some with fireplaces and private terraces. The rooms surround a four-story courtyard resplendent with fountains, Berber carpets, and palms. Essaouira’s best Moroccan cooking is found at Restaurant Ferdaous, a rather plain, unpretentious space in the medina that’s always packed with locals and in-the-know travelers who come for the tagine, couscous, and fresh seafood.
WHERE: 100 miles/161 km west of Marrakech. VILLA MAROC: Tel 212/524-47-61-47; www.villa-maroc.com. Cost: from $118; dinner $24. RYAD WATIER: Tel 212/524-47-62-04; www.ryad-watier-maroc.com. Cost: from $115. RESTAURANT FERDAOUS: Tel 212/524-47-36-55. Cost: dinner $15. BEST TIMES: Mar–May and Sep–Dec for nicest weather; late Jun for Gnaoua and World Music Festival.
Symbolic and Spiritual Heart of Morocco
FÈS EL BALI
Fès, Morocco
The intellectual, cultural, and religious center of Morocco for 1,200 years, Fès (or Fez) is Morocco’s oldest imperial capital and is known for the Fès el Bali, its large, sprawling, walled medina. With 9,500 streets and by some accounts over 180 miles of alleys, it is crammed with every conceivable sort of workshop, market, and restaurant. Fès el Bali is a delirious assault of sights, sounds, and smells, with dye pits, tanneries, butcher shops, tiled fountains, mosques, palaces, spice markets, madrassas, and a legion of persistent rug merchants. It will all seem overwhelming, so consider hiring an official Fassi guide.
Apart from electricity, everything in Fès el Bali seems to belong to another century. Medersa Bou Inania, built in the 1350s, is a masterpiece of extravagance, highlighted by a grand courtyard decorated with intricate geometric motifs, dazzling wood carvings, and plasterwork. The Fondouk el-Nejjarin, opened in the 14th century, served for hundreds of years as home to Fès’s itinerant woodcrafters, who carved elaborate friezes (it’s now a museum of woodworking). The medina’s centerpiece is the Kairaouine Mosque, founded in 857 and with room for 20,000 worshippers.
Just steps from the mosque is an exquisite small guesthouse, Dar Seffarine—with magnificent tilework, a column-flanked courtyard, large, enchantingly furnished rooms, and warm hospitality. You’ll find ambience on a grander scale at the Sofitel Fès Palais Jamaï, a princely, 140-room former palace built in 1879, with lush gardens and opulent, tiled décor. The beautifully restored hotel La Maison Bleue is a top choice for its restaurant. Enjoy flaky pigeon pastilla, a specialty of Fès, in a candlelit salon after cocktails beside the courtyard fountain.
At the weeklong Fez Festival of World Sacred Music in early June, performances may include Berber music, Turkish whirling dervishes of Konya, a Harlem choir singing gospel music, female musicians from France performing Gregorian chants, or ancient Judeo-Spanish lullabies.
Music festival events are sometimes staged 40 miles west of Fès among the remains of Volubilis, the largest and best-preserved Roman ruins in North Africa. The city flourished in the first century A.D. as the place where the Romans and Berbers met to trade. Wander the ancient streets and squares to see the grand triumphal arch and forum, humble homes and olive presses, and dozens of exquisite, well-preserved mosaics.
Fès el Bali’s medina is one of the largest and best conserved historic towns of the Arab-Muslim world.
WHERE: 155 miles/249 km east of Casablanca. DAR SEFFARINE: Tel 212/671-11-35-28; www.darseffarine.com. Cost: from $92. FÈS PALAIS JAMAÏ: Tel 212/535-63-43-31; www.sofitel.com. Cost: from $225. LA MAISON BLEUE: Tel 212/535-636-052; www.maisonbleue.com. Cost: from $225; dinner $65. HOW: U.S.-based Morocco Tours offers 10-day music festival packages. Tel 800-799-3080 or 646-643-1420; www.fesmusicfestival.com. Cost: from $1,890, meals and concert passes ex
tra. Originates in Casablanca. When: Jun. BEST TIMES: Sep–Nov and Apr–Jun for pleasant weather; early Jun for Sacred Music Festival; late Oct for Fès Culinary Festival.
Romancing the Palate
DINING IN MARRAKECH
Marrakech, Morocco
The great chef Paul Bocuse once said, “There are only three cuisines in the world: French, Chinese, and Moroccan.” And not necessarily in that order, one is inclined to believe after spending time in Marrakech. The food of Morocco owes much of its distinct character to the ancient trade caravans, which brought in rare spices and other ingredients. The Berbers also shared their traditions and their foods (like dates, lamb, honey, and almonds), while French, Portuguese, Arab, and Spanish influences made their way here too, thanks to Marrakech’s position as gateway between Europe and Africa.
For sheer variety and atmosphere, the first stop in which to explore it all must be the evening food market at the Djemaa el-Fna square (see p. 386). Amid exotic aromas and sounds, vendors at more than 100 open-kitchen food stalls prepare such traditional foods as sizzling lamb merguez sausages, slabs of cumin-scented bread, bean-and-vegetable harira soup cooked in 50-gallon pots, escargots simmered in broth and garlic, and, for the daring, sheep’s head stewed with chickpeas.
In the narrow lanes of the medina, you’ll find dozens of fine restaurants. Behind the massive, unmarked door of a sumptuous 200-year-old palace, Yacout (which means “sapphire” in Arabic) is One Thousand and One Nights romantic, with hundreds of flickering candles, ornate mosaics, the scent of jasmine in the air, and the hypnotic strumming of Gnaoua music. Try the traditional pastilla, a sweet-and-savory pastry made with almonds and pigeon or chicken. Le Tobsil, another glittering Scheherazade’s jewel box of a restaurant, is more intimate but also serves a dizzying sequence of courses in the style of a traditional Marrakech feast.
Le Foundouk’s style is more chic and contemporary, as evidenced by its elegant, understated décor and its innovative cooking combining Moroccan and French flavors. Enjoy an aperitif on the rooftop terrace, then retreat to one of the private candlelit salons that ring the courtyard.
In the modern Guéliz district is the delightfully atypical Al Fassia, staffed entirely by women and offering an extensive à la carte menu. The cooking here is lighter and more varied, and some of the specialties, such as méchoui (roast lamb shoulder), require a day’s notice, so order ahead when you reserve your table.
Learning to prepare Moroccan dishes at one of the city’s cooking schools is a great way to absorb even more of the culture. One is run by La Maison Arabe, an elegant riad hotel with a pool, spa, and acclaimed restaurant.
YACOUT: Tel 212/44-38-29-29; www.yacout.net. Cost: prix-fixe dinner $85. LE TOBSIL: Tel 212/524-44-40-52. Cost: prix-fixe dinner $70. LE FOUNDOUK: Tel 212/524-37-81-90; www.foundouk.com. Cost: dinner $33. AL FASSIA: Tel 212/524-43-40-60; www.alfassia.com. Cost: dinner $35. LA MAISON ARABE: Tel 212/524-38-70-10; www.lamaisonarabe.com. Cost: rooms from $190 (off-peak), from $240 (peak); half-day cookery workshops $70.
Everyday Carnival at the City’s Center
PLACE DJEMAA EL-FNA AND THE MEDINA
Marrakech, Morocco
According to Paul Bowles, a Moroccan at heart, Marrakech without the huge Djemaa el-Fna, the teeming central plaza at the heart of the medina, would be just another Moroccan city. This is where it all happens, an impromptu medieval circus enacted around the clock. During the day, snake charmers, performing monkeys, and souvenir sellers lure the tourists, while dentists, barbers, and scribes serve the locals. Later, the square fills with food vendors selling everything from lamb couscous to orange juice, and the air is filled with the smoke and sizzle of grilled kebabs. When Djemaa el-Fna echoes with the muezzin call to evening prayer and lights flood the towering minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque, the impact is magical. The square is lined—at street level and above—with cafés and restaurants. Take in the mayhem from the “Grand Balcon” of the Café Glaciers.
To the north is the souk, the mazelike marketplace of narrow streets and alleys lined with street merchants and overflowing stores and stalls. Here, while dodging motorbikes and donkey carts, you’ll find silk babouche slippers, bags of spice, leather goods, ethnic silver jewelry, carpets, and objets d’art.
Escape to an oasis of comfort and serenity behind the thick walls of newly restored riads, historic homes built around courtyards and now transformed into restaurants and guesthouses that range from modest to sumptuous. Created from five smaller riads in the medina’s core, Riad Farnatchi is a nine-suite masterwork of tasteful renovation, blending contemporary European and traditional Moroccan design in a rambling series of rooms, courtyards, and terraces. At the handsome Riad Malika the vibe is relaxed, the style eclectic, and the welcome friendly. The owner’s collection of 20th-century art and furniture is displayed throughout and the pool and terrace are a riot of potted palms and bougainvillea.
When Truman Capote advised, “Before you go to Marrakech, make sure you say goodbye to all your friends and draw your savings from the bank,” he must have been booked at the lavish La Mamounia, a grand and glamorous hotel built in the 1920s outside the Medina’s walls. Recently refurbished, it combines classic Moroccan and Art Deco influences, and juxtaposes a sultan’s original 16th-century gardens with a fabulous new spa and hammam. Its rooms and suites have entertained Winston Churchill, the Rolling Stones, and Nelson Mandela.
WHERE: 149 miles/240 km south of Casablanca. RIAD FARNATCHI: Tel 212/524-38-27-40; www.riadfarnatchi.com. Cost: from $390. RIAD MALIKA: 212/524-38-54-51; www.riadmalika.com. Cost: from $120 (off-peak), from $185 (peak). LA MAMOUNIA: Tel 212/524-38-86-00; www.mamounia.com. Cost: from $700. BEST TIMES: Mar–May and Sep–Nov for most clement weather; mid-Jul for the Popular Arts Festival.
Desert Beauty and Mystique
THE GREAT SAHARA
Morocco
The Sahara desert is easy to reach in Morocco, and once you’re there, you’ll find mountains of sand, vibrant green oases, miles of barren scrub and stone that the Berbers call hammada, turbaned nomads astride camels, ancient mud-walled casbahs, and, at night, an ocean of stars, uncannily clear and bright.
The road trip from Marrakech into the Sahara brings you across the Atlas Mountains (see p. 390) and into barren desert basins where underground rivers sustain oases of date palms and almond, citrus, and olive trees. For millennia, camel caravans traversed this seemingly empty landscape carrying spices, jewels, and gold. The gateway is Ouarzazate, where two routes diverge, both leading toward the great dunes of the central Sahara. South from Ouarzazate, the road follows the palm-fringed Drâa Valley to Zagora, where a sign at the edge of town reads “Timbuktu: 52 Days by Camel.” Leave that trail to the nomads, and instead continue south to M’hamid. From here, only jeeps or camels can penetrate the massive Erg Chigaga dunes, enormous mounds of sand stretching for 25 miles and nearing heights of 1,000 feet. Dar Azawad, an elegant lodging where you’ll find a talented chef who trained in France, comes as a surprise in this remote wilderness. Set in a palm-shaded oasis, its fit-for-a-sultan rooms, heated swimming pool, and spa with hammam create a splendid base for overnight trips to luxury tent camps deep in the dunes.
The route east from Ouarzazate, following the Road of the Thousand Kasbahs, leads toward the lush oasis of Skoura, where two of the desert’s finest hotels await. Dar Ahlam is a meticulously restored 1920s casbah with plush suites and villas, superlative food, and an expansive garden-surrounded pool and spa, though the real highlight is the personalized tours and services offered by the friendly staff. Kasbah Ait Ben Moro is a landmark 18th-century fortress transformed into a hotel offering simply decorated rooms and impressive Moroccan dining. From Skoura, continue past the mighty Dadès and Todra gorges and then to Merzouga, where the soaring dunes of Erg Chebbi rise 450 feet above the verdant oasis.
Whichever route you choose, don’t miss an overnight excursion to camp among the dunes. By jeep or camel, you will travel deep into the shifting and undulating hil
ls of towering sand to your tented campsite. Dune walks are arranged for the cool, early hours of the morning; jeeps convey you to desert towns, fortresses, ruins, and lush oases where foreigners rarely venture.
Ergs, which are fields of wild-blown sand, cover about 20 percent of the desert.
WHERE: Ouarzazate is 125 miles/200 km southeast of Marrakech. DAR AZAWAD: Tel 212/524-84-87-30; www.darazawad.com. Cost: from $175, inclusive. DAR AHLAM: Tel: 212/524-85-22-39; www.maisonsdesreves.com. Cost: from $1,155 (off-peak), from $1,565 (peak), all-inclusive. KASBAH AIT BEN MORO: Tel 212/524-85-21-16; www.aitbenmoro.com. Cost: from $80, inclusive. HOW: U.S.-based Overseas Adventure Travel offers a 16-day Morocco Sahara Odyssey that includes 2 nights camping in the Sahara. Tel 800-221-0814 or 617-350-7500; www.oattravel.com. Cost: from $2,895, all-inclusive. BEST TIMES: Jan–Apr and Sep–Dec for nicest weather; Oct for Erfoud Festival of Dates.
An Ancient Port and Artist’s Playground
TANGIER’S MEDINA
Tangier, Morocco
This ancient port and trading center was considered such a vital gateway between Europe and Africa (it lies directly across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain, just 8 miles distant) that throughout much of its history it was an independent city-state. It only became part of Morocco in 1957. Largely unconstrained by the social mores of either Europe or Muslim Africa, Tangier became known for its decadent ways and attracted such artists and writers as Henri Matisse, Oscar Wilde, André Gide, and, later, Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs, who would find his inspiration here for Naked Lunch.
1,000 Places to See Before You Die Page 62
