Day 9: Morning in Marrakech - Town Square

The pictures below are from our weekend trip to Marrakech.  We have the weekends off from work and can explore Morocco on our own so our team organized a trip to visit one of the biggest tourist cities in Morocco.  Marrakech was about a four hour drive from Rabat and we arrived a little before noon on Saturday.

The pictures capture some of the local color of the Marrakech Town Square (also known as Place Jemaa el-Fna) but it is hard to put into words and pictures what we experienced there.  It is a very sensory experience and the sights, sounds, and smells are very memorable.   From a noise perspective, you could hear a cacaphony of different sounds.   It was a combination of snake charmer music, drum music, Arabic and French voices, and motorcyles and cars.  Arabic prayers were also broadcast over an intercome system every few hours.  My understanding is that Muslims typically pray five times a day and the broadcast prayers were a reminder to pray.    In contrast, when you would visit some of the local monuments and garden it was almost deafening silence where all you could hear was the trickle of water and birds chirping.

The smells were equally interesting.   When walking through the Souks (small shops), you could smell incense, leather, olives, cooking meat, and diesel exhaust from all of the many motorcyclists who ride through the Town Square and Souks.  It was a very interesting combination of smells that I had not experienced together before.

There are so many great experiences and pictures from our Saturday in Marrakech that I had to break them into several separate blogs.   I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the day.  :-)

This is the Marrakech Town Square (also known as Place Jemaa el-Fna) which is the hub of activity and the heart of Marrakech.

I'm not sure what these men are called but you would see them walking throughout the Town Square and offering to take a picture with you for a price.   I loved their brightly colored robes and hats.



This was one of the first 'vendors' that I saw when I walked into the Town Square.  There was something about the contrast between the woman's eyes and the brightly colored hats that made this one of my favorite pictures.



I had seen snake charmers in the movies but this was my first time in person.   No doubt that I tried to admire the snakes from a distance.  There were two cobras and one other snake that looked similar to a rattlesnake.  I didn't get close enough to ask.  :-)

Thank goodness for zoom lenses.



Tracey was the only one crazy - I mean brave - enough to let the snake charmer put a real cobra around her neck.   The snake charmer even let the snake 'kiss' her.   Needless to say that I was about to crawl out of my skin.



We ate at a restaurant in the Town Square that was on the roof of a building.   The view overlooked the Town Square and the food was very good.   You will notice all of the fresh fruit juices.... they are very popular with our team during meals.