Morocco 2010 - The Chullah

The Chullah is a citadel in Rabat that has been occupied since the Romans down to Muslims in the fourteenth century. Much of it was restored by the Muslims, but is has ruins from both.

The site also contains a botanical garden with some of the amazing flowers of Morocco.

Here are ruins from Roman times

These Roman ruins were a big deal to me. When I was going to Weber State (Great Great Great!) I took a class on Brazilian Culture. As the final, we were required to do research on a cultural icon and present it to the class. I chose Graciliano Ramos because I lived close to a borough named after him. One of the students showed a bunch of mission pictures from Portugal. I have no idea what his project was on, but I can remember him showing tile mosaics done by the Romans and being amazed at the length of history that Europe enjoys. 1847 doesn't seem so long ago in comparison to the more than two millennia in Europe.

I'm pretty sure this Latin translated to "Don't lean on this stone."

These are horizontal Roman columns.

Italian marble column - 14th Century  - one of the few still upright.

Tomb of the Black Sultan. I don't know who he was, but anyone called the Black Sultan had to be pretty nifty.

There were thousands of these birds on the grounds.

This was a fourteenth century Muslim School. The rooms in the back were two story at one time, and they were used for studying.

Spanish tile work - not bad for nearly seven hundred years old

The tile here is impressive, but the Italian marble stairs looked pristine. Sweep them off and maybe take a mop to them and you could sell them at Home Depot.

Footings for columns now gone

Dates hanging from the Date Palm.

Eel pool - the eels wouldn't come out for us.

We used to look for the oldest tombstone in cemeteries - I win.

I'm going to break this day up into two posts. More later.

Photo Album