Aside on building interiors - Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail

At the center of the room was a fountain – these serve not only decorative but also functional purposes. The ones in mosques and madrissahs are used by people to perform their ablutions before going to prayer. They are set in mosaic tile floors – the entire floor is tiled and the mosaics extend up to about eye-level on the walls. Islamic art is all about intricate patterns, since they can’t portray life-forms, and they even have these complicated knot structures that somehow prove religious things – I forget exactly what.

Floor and wall-work can be as simple as repeated patterns through large square tiles, or very complicated tiny geometric shapes that interlock and fill the plane. In Fes, they showed us how these wall mosaics were done at a pottery factory, but I’m not certain the floors are done the same way. Basically, they fire the pieces initially as large coloured squares; firing is done in these giant kilns where they burn olive pits, so the whole place smells like olives. These large squares are chipped manually into appropriate smaller shapes. These are laid face down in the final patterns inside large frames, cement is poured over them, and when you flip them over, you have the final product. For tourist purposes, they make these into tabletops for patio furniture. They were beautiful, but way out of our price range.

Moving upward, the tilework gives way to plasterwork. These are not molded but carved in situ – the builders form the walls and pillars, and then the artisans come in and carve and paint the designs in by hand. Chandeliers or lanterns hang down from the ceiling and show off the handiwork of the blacksmiths.

Finally, the plaster gives way to ceilings of carved and painted cedar wood as well as stain-glass windows. The windows in this particular room were not too complex, but you can get some with really colourful glass and fine patterns.

Next - Aug 17 – Continued exploration of Meknes