What is a Medina? It is a walled in old city particularly used to describe old towns in Northern Africa. My first time experiencing a Medina was in Essaouira, a town on the western Atlantic coast of Morocco. The Medina of Essaouira, formerly known as Mogador, is a UNESCO World Herritage Site.
Here is a window into what it was like there:
What is it like In the Medina? Busy! But only to foreign eyes. It seems as if I will not be able to take everything in all at once; there is so much to look at. People are going by on bicycles, small construction vehicles, pushing carts full of strawberries, herbs, nuts, or water. It will take a few days before the amount of things to look at doesn’t overwhelm me.
It must be hot here in summer; all of the buildings are white. Although the sun is warm, the February air is damp. If you’re outside the Medina walls overlooking the ocean and beach, the view gets hazy and then disappears the farther out you look. In the evening when the sun vanishes, the humidity permeates your clothes and skin which is especially chilling when the wind blows.
There are so many stalls lining the street selling anything and everything imaginable, with each one selling only a smattering of items. Store after store after store. It is dim inside a few of them, relying only on the bright sunlight to be able to see what wonders are within. Some of the stalls are large enough to walk around in, others sell over the counter to you in the street, while still others appear as literal holes in the wall. A slim few seem like junk heaps while others have tiling and electric lights, but most of them, on concrete floors, are somewhere in between.
Only a handful of stores are touristy. They sell postcards and T-shirts with “Moroc ‘n’ roll” on them, small metal tea pots, and ceramic ashtrays. The majority of stalls are selling goods and services for the everyday Moroccan. Shoes, clothes for men, women or children, paper products, baby carriages, plastic storage containers, cell phone chargers and SIM cards.
There are bike repair shops, tailors, butchers, bakers. Fish shops, fruit stalls, spices – pharmaceutical, culinary, and otherwise (“Berber Viagra” for him and for her). There are food shops for vegetables, bread and pastries, and argon oil (a Moroccan specialty). Grain and rice are sold out of large burlap sacks. Some places are filled floor to ceiling with various sized water bottles.
Art galleries with large canvas paintings, small metal sculptures, a tiny wood working stall, little wooden boxes, and beautiful ceramic plates with spiraling mathematical designs. CD shops blaring the Beatles or Reggae next to men selling rugs and cushions, billowing pants and dresses. Despite all the commerce I don’t see a single plastic bag – and I won’t in Marrakesh either. Although I never can find a garbage can, the roads are so clean.
From their shops, the men call to you. Bounjour. Ça va bien? Excuse me, where are you from? Israel? Spain? Australia? You can ignore them or say hello and walk on. They will leave you alone. They’re not overly aggressive in their approach to sell things which I anticipate with fear in Marrakesh.
The call to prayer happens several times a day. Most notably at 5:45 in the morning. This one always catches me off guard and unaware. I think my Riad (hotel) is located directly next to a mosque. In the Medina, I see men exiting their places of worship and putting their shoes on as they enter the street.
Hungry in the Medina? There are cafes, restaurants, sandwich and snack shops, crepe stands, and one place selling ice cream. You can grab food on the street or sit on the rooftop terraces of a café, restaurant, or hotel. One place I ate at had retro style chairs, while another place had benches made comfortable by Moroccan cushions.
Walking through the streets, the smell changes from leather to fish to a blend of spices to sweet crepes to rotisserie chicken and fried sea food. It’s real, freshly made leather. There are bags, belts, and occasionally clothes. But.the.shoes. The shoes are so beautiful and so colorful I’m almost tempted to buy some. I never inspect them too closely, just glance while passing by, to avoid the pressure of actually buying a pair.
Sometimes it smells like cat. Dogs and cats wander around but don’t beg or bother you and don’t appear mangy or dirty like you might expect from stray animals. Their presence is less noticeable and less of a nuisance than the cats of Dubrovnik, where you must continually watch your step. The real pests around here are the seagulls, although you’ll only really find them at the port and seaside or thieving from rooftop terraces.
There are men on scaffolding, building new wooden awnings above the shops or washing windows. Others are repairing the roads and drains. At the entrance of the argon stores, there is always a woman sitting on the step using terracotta to grind the argon nut into a liquid to be used in their products. Some people are sweeping in front of their shops or washing the floor.
Around four out of five people in the Medina seem Moroccan. Maybe there are more tourists in the summer? But the Medina here isn’t just for tourists like the old towns in Prague or Bruges. Dress ranges from Western to Middle Eastern. There are men and women wearing long over clothes which are solid black, white, or another color, some are plain and others are more elaborately decorated and embroidered. Others are wearing Adidas sweatpants and jackets, or jeans and headscarves. If there are homeless in Essaouira, they’re not seen in the Medina. A few beggars are around, but not nearly as many as New York streets or as forward as on Berlin subways.
The Medina is a maze of streets. It takes me a few days before I begin to find the same places twice. I don’t know it yet, but the Medina labyrinth in Marrakesh awaits swallowing me up. Usually to find my way home, I wander until I end up in one of the two main streets. Each day I feel more comfortable in this city, wandering further down smaller streets and covered alleyways. Why was I even afraid to come alone? The city is quite friendly, easy to navigate, and close to the beach. After 5 days I am sad to leave, but would love to visit here again.
Have you been somewhere that ended up surprising you? Where did you go? Why was it not what you expected? To explore more of the Medina, check out how cool the doors are! < I was obsessed!
Interesting thanks for your post.