Overview
We started our tour in Rabat, one of several cities with a royal palace. Officially listed as the capital of Morocco, Rabat is located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. As with many cities in this region, it is very old. Supposedly a Phoenician city founded around 1000 BCE. To give a mostly complete history would take several books. There are two areas of interest for tourists in Rabat. The kasba, or walled fort, and the medina and souk, the old market. They are pretty much next to each other.
The Kasbah
The Kasbah of the Udaya, a walled fort or citadel located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg River, on the south bank. Except for a museum, the inside is free to visit. My favorite spot was the Andalusian Gardens. A curated space with water features and places to sit and take in the plants, with a design inspired by gardens the Arabs built in Spain during their occupation. While it looks like it has been here for centuries, it dates from the French period in 1915.
The Medina
As you wander the medina in Rabat, you will see walled houses, restaurants, riads (a former mansion converted into a hotel, residents, vendors, and tourists, all squeezed on a four-foot-wide, unevenly paved ‘street’. Sometimes there is a roof or covering over the street; sometimes not. But with narrow streets and three- or four-story buildings, the sun never makes itself seen in the medina.
While I have seen souks line a square or plaza, most of the time the souk is located along those narrow paths in the medina; sometimes there seems to be some order to the type of items for sale; mostly, it is just a hodgepodge of stalls. And don’t forget to haggle over the price.
Most people in our tour group were wary of the street food for sale in the souk. While I did not take huge risks, I did safely eat some food in the Rabat souk.
Conclusion
Visiting a foreign country can be so difficult; why don’t they all speak English? Of course that is a stupid question; in my case, I am using it as sarcasm—a couple of words that confuse tourists: medina and souk. A medina is an older walled part of a city. A souk is an open-air market, usually located inside a medina.
The medina consists of many narrow, intersecting, and not always straight streets or alleys, which, even with a map and Google Maps, is hard to navigate. It is said that if anyone tells you they have never been lost in a medina, they are either a liar or were born there, and even those born there get lost.
The Capital of Morocco, Rabat, is easily reached by air and is a good place to start your adventure in Morocco.
