After weekdays where all our waking hours are scheduled, a free day baffles me. It’s a Friday too, so the whole atmosphere is very slow. I guess I could do something, but I would much rather sit around and read, like I would do at home when I’ve nothing to do.
On the bright side lunch was absolutely amazing today. We had a roast chicken covered in fries and stuffed with tasty shredded squash, and bread of course. I was actually still hungry when it was gone; there’s first. Today was also a good day to be fretted over during a meal because I got tasty chicken pushed onto my plate. Second-best meal in Morocco thus far, the first being the pastilla at the CCCL during orientation week.
This afternoon I took a break from all my relaxing and went to Chellah with Emily and her sister Aicha. The Chellah complex was originally built by the Romans to oversee the Bouregreg river valley. It’s an ideal spot for a fortification because it’s on a little peninsular plateau jutting out from Rabat proper, it has several springs, and has a great view of the river valley. Once the town was abandoned by the Romans, the Almohads and then the Merinids used the citadel as a burying ground. The tomb of sultan Abou el Hassan is within the ruins, as are several domed tombs of saints. A spring-fed well is a home for eels that are fed hard-boiled eggs by local women praying for fertility.
Rabatis frolic inside ChellahThe whole complex is built on hill, and the top part is a large garden covered in storks and egrets. The storks also nest in the ruined minaret. Apparently, having a stork nest in your minaret is good luck. Elsewhere in the complex are obvious signs of Roman architecture, such as toppled columns, pedestals, inscribed stone blocks, and even a mosaic. The ruins are overgrown with grasses, wildflowers, agave, and prickly pear.
Chellah is also overrun by something else: people. As a future archaeologist I didn’t know what to think about this. You can climb all over the Roman ruins because none are more than 6ft tall. You can also walk around inside the mosques which accompanied the burying ground. It was a strange experience for me, coming from culture which would generally rope off the whole area to promote preservation, but also to prevent people from hurting themselves. None of that here; there were only a few men in uniform armed with whistles that they would sound occasionally.
The Chellah grounds are used as a park by the Rabatis. Whole families were having picnics on the hill, children were playing soccer, couples were talking, and groups of young men were sprawled everywhere. This had nothing of the air of an archaeological site.
As we were walking into Chellah we asked Aicha about the history of the complex, but she knew very little, despite the fact that she said she and friends used to eat lunch and meet up there often. The draw of Chellah has little to do with its status as a historical site and more to do with it being a green space, a park. The ruins serve as more of a playground than a museum piece. This goes along with what we’d heard in class: that history is not seen as “dead” in Morocco. For example, people still visit the tombs of saints that died hundreds of years ago and speak to them as if they were sitting next to them. The past is very much still a part of the present. Museums, too, are not very prominent in Morocco, probably for the same reason.
As far as preservation goes, people climbing all over the Roman stone walls aren’t going to do much to damage the area, so why not let them? It was really fun to be able to walk freely around the ruins. The Islamic part was the area that had the guards, but then again the buildings there were still intact for the most part.
I think it’s nice to be able to open up the complex to everybody and make it a part of city life. Instead of having a somber and contemplative air as an abandoned town and necropolis, Chellah is still full of life and activity. The use of space reflects the Moroccan view of the past as a part of life in the present. ISP here is come.
Emily and I agree that our diet rich in bread and sugar is making us crave…bread and sugar. It’s a self-perpetuating problem.
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