Morocco. One of the most shocking, eclectic, fascinating, colorful, stimulating, and unexpected places I've been. Teaming with history, color, smell, taste, and sound. A country where each experience surprises you, whether it be lush farmland in the middle of a vast, arid landscape, or the shocking detail hand-etched into every inch of one of the largest Mosques on earth. The lively bustle of an old town square on a Tuesday night, or the intense, rapid change in scenery from mountains, to desert, to lush forests, to sheer cliffs, to farmland in a single day's drive.
Moreover are the people: the craftsmen (and women), the workers, and the mothers carrying a mountain of food, laundry, or crops across several kilometers each day. The back-breaking work of hand-mixing a pool of tile clay or hand-dying leather in the blistering sun. The delicate precision of chipping tiles into identical shapes with a pick and hammer or hand-stitching a carpet over the course of seven months. But within the sheer strength and brute force of work and daily tasks for survival is the skill, precision, talent, and practice passed through several generations and manifests in a clay Tagine pot, an intricate lamp, a colorful rug, or an artisan lock and key. Morocco is a place you can experience several years' time in a single day. Where you can travel to what feels like several countries, or planets, for that matter, in just 3 hours. This is the Kingdom of Morocco.
Follow along below for a visual journey through this beautiful country – all photos in the chronological order of my route:
Rabat to Meknes to Chefchaouen to Fez through the Cedar Forest to the Ziz Valley, Erfoud, and Merzouga, to Erg Chebbi Desert to Ouarzazate to Marrakech and finally Essaouira.
