Mmorocco

Ouarzazate: The casbat taourirt

La city of Ouarzazate is home to one of the wonders of this hitoire Morocco is 1.5 km from the center, on the road to the city of Tineghir, this sumptuous residence of the Pasha of Marrakech is the proof that can only make beautiful buildings in the land. Together they form a whole fortified village is served by a network of alleys can visit what remains of the old Glaoui apartments that have retained their decoration painted stucco and cedar ceiling. The Casbah has to be a remarkable restoration.

Each spring, for a week, a folk festival takes place in the unique setting of the casbah.
At the crossroads between the valleys of the Draa, Dades and Ziz, Ouarzazate marks the beginning of the journey by dazzling the traveler with two magnificent kasbahs. Taourirt the former residence of the Glaoui, is staggering beauty. Towers emerging from a mass of houses close to each other, grow their slots to the blue sky and compete for first place in the sun.
That of Aït Benhaddou, located 30 kilometers from the city, is one of the most beautiful. Imagine a beautiful sand castle magically placed in a field of blossoming almond trees. So beautiful, so playing with the light that was the scene of numerous films, including "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Tea in the Sahara". Title of nobility, this is casbah Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Kasbah Tifoultoute, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Starting point of the road oasis, Ouarzazate is also the point of arrival of the cultures and crafts. In the souk on Sunday, are profusely henna, roses, cumin, sage distilled off Berber pottery, carved stone objects, blankets and carpets deemed Ouzguita, blue, or yellow gold, drawings geometric.
An ideal, Ouarzazate provides a wonderful relaxation in the hotels, all splendid. Generous, hospitable, exotic, she prepares to smooth sensations extreme desert.

Oualidia: The charm of a seaside resort

Cooperating and Moroccans especially enjoy this charming resort. The city is also known for its seafood, especially oysters famous Oualidia. Its good hotels are a nice step on the coast.

Around Oualidia

Oualidia is a few miles a part from Safi, the largest fishing port in Morocco known for its sardines, it also exports phosphates, textiles and ceramics. The traditional Moroccan Market in medina is good place to shop for Moroccan pottery, decorated vases and tiles, Moroccan tajines, plates and other traditional Moroccan artifacts that are cheap compared with destinations like Marrakesh.
National ceramics museum has a collection of traditional sculpted, molded and engraved Moroccan ceramics and It is located in the 16th century Kechla Citadel built by the Portuguese, who occupied Safi from 1508 to 1541.

Oualidia Accommodation

Riad Dar Beldi, douar moulay adessalam, Oualidia, +( 212) 6 62 06 18 65
This Riad is a charming family owned Moroccan guest house with an interior gardens and courtyards, owner lives in premise.

La Sultana Oualidia, Parc a huitre 3, Oualidia, +(212) 5 24 38 80 08
La Sultana is a small luxury hotel, it is a bit expensive, and it is situated in a good location surrounded by the most breathtaking natural beauty, and offer views over the lagone.

According to the New York Times: “It’s just about communing with nature: fishing, surfing, kayaking or birdwatching,” said James von Leyden, a British expatriate who built a house overlooking Oualidia’s lagoon, which is filled with pink flamingoes, migrating herons and the occasional surfer.

Mr. Von Leyden and his family spend about four months a year at Villa La Diouana, their charming riad on the sea; the rest of the year it is rented by savvy Morocco insiders, like the French handbag designer Laetitia Trouillet.

The British writer Danny Moynihan and his wife, Katrina Boorman, an actress, fell so in love with the area that they bought property in 2004. This year they are completing an eight bedroom eco-property. (It will also be available to rent.)

The kasbah of El Walid. This seaside village is named after its founder, Sultan Walid El saadien. There he built in 1634, a kasbah designed to defend the access port located in the harbor.
Swimming. Two half-moon shaped dunes with a rock in the middle, close the lagoon. The beach is particularly safe even if the two inlets communicating with the ocean are dangerous.
Step cuisine. On weekends, the hotels are often fully booked. Apart from its site, the city is indeed famous for its oysters whose culture has developed in the fifties. Here you can enjoy many other shellfish such as clams or sea urchins.

- The old city walls are the remains that can be seen hanging on the cliff there.

Oualidia is a small coastal village located between the Moroccan cities of El Jadida and Safi and only two hours from both the pink city of Marrakesh and the economical capital of Morocco Casablanca.

The seaside Moroccan village of Oualidia is known for its bird watching, blue water beaches, farmed oysters, and distinctive village quietness. That’s exactly what’s so special about the town. Oualidia is a great place for beach sports lovers, kayaking, fishing, surfers and windsurfing will not be disappointed, the village gets a bit busier during summer months, but for the rest of the year, it is very much quit. Several type of birds can be found in the sea side village of Oualidia and it includes: avocets, cormorants, flamingos, redshanks, godwits. Birds are usually migrating from sub Sahara Africa and Europe.

For a great seafood meal, head to the the seaside fish restaurant L’Ostrea which serves Oualidia’s famous oysters. L’Araignee Gourmande is a great seafood restaurants as well, several types of oysters are farmed in Oualidia including French, Japanese oysters, and cupped oysters. Oysters were brought under the French protectorate in 1950s.

Discover a city imperial Meknes.

Meknes is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco. Under the reign of Moulay Ismail (1672 - 1727) it was a period of great prosperity and what remains of this era of grandeur and previous eras makes this city an important step of any trip to Morocco. Moulay Ismail Meknes chosen as the capital for reasons both strategic, political and geographical. Apart from its architectural obvious even to the most casual tourists, the Kasbah of Meknes is of singular importance to the fact that this is the first great work of the Alaouite dynasty, dynasty reigning in Morocco for over 300 years.

Ismaili Kasbah is an integral part of the history of Moroccan architecture. Monuments to the imagination by both their diversity and their apparent fundamental homogeneity. A number of doors especially highlighted on the decorative (Bab Mansour and Bab Laalej Errih) provide access to a palace or a subset or even the whole Kasbah. These are essentially those doors that justify the name "Meknes, the capital of beautiful doors."
A city of Meknes was founded in the tenth century by the tribe Zenete Meknassa native to Eastern came to settle in the region attracted by the fertility of the soil, abundance of water and the charm of these gardens. A part of this tribe also founded the city of Taza. Before its construction, there was a series of villages without walls, which coexisted peacefully in the agricultural life of Berber traditions.
The Almoravids in the eleventh century fortified town. The Almohads in the twelfth century and repopulate build mosques, hammams (baths Moors) ect ... The fourth Almohad Sultan An-Nasir Mohammed, the mosque was re-added it and a mihrab (circa 1203). Abou Youssef, built a Kasbah and Meknes became the residence of viziers.
In the thirteenth century, under the reign of Mérinides many monuments will be built by Abu Youssef Abou El Hassan. It is under the Merinids that will truly become a city Meknes Hispano Maghreb.

At the time of Saâdyines, northern cities lost their importance. It was not until the late 17th century and the advent of the second Alaouite sultan for the city of Meknes is placed at the forefront of the imperial cities. Moulay Ismail, who was the first governor, gave him an extraordinary development, it would make a great capital. It is therefore habitual residence and put in value and many grand buildings: Pali sumptuous mosques, madrasahs to harmonious ensembles, gates, ramparts imposing extensive gardens, parts of water. Following the death of Moulay Ismail in 1727 his son Moulay Abdellah, continued and completed part of the work undertaken by his father. Meknes is enriched with several monuments in the reign of Sidi Mohammed ben Abdellah (1757 - 1790): he built mosques, mausoleums and palace of Dar Beida, currently occupied by the Royal Military Academy. The Alawites have continued to this day, to be builders of kings and the Kasbah of Meknes is therefore a particular significance.
Meknes currently includes an ancient city and a modern city separated by the valley of the river Boufekrane. The new town you can enjoy a nice overview of the Medina with its many minarets, its ramparts and imperial city.