Petit a petit – A woman’s chronicles of her two years in Morocco.

Petit a petit

Here is a look at why this blog was nominated for the 2011 Bombies.

Eid el-Adha is the holiday of sacrifice. Families each slaughter a sheep if they can afford it, and even if they can’t, as a sign of sacrifice to God. It’s also referred to as Eid el-Kabir, or the Big Eid, as opposed to the “small” one at the end of Ramadan. “Eid” simply means “holiday.”After morning prayers, my friend’s family came to pick me up at my apartment and take us all to my friend’s grandmother’s house. Everyone in the car, and in the street, was decked out in especially clean, if not new, jellabas, caftans, and at least in the case of and eight-year-old cousin of my friend’s, a sweet suit. I wore black pants and a button-down shirt—not too fancy, but clean at least. Right before lunch, I was urged to change into something “more comfortable,” which is how I ended up wearing an awesome purple caftan that my friend just up and gave to me at the end of the day.

To nominate a blog for the Best of Morocco Blogs, just make sure it fits the criteria at this post and then let us know about it!

One of the most famous hiking trails in the world is considering a geological jump to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

A few hundred million years ago, after the continental plates of Europe, Africa, and North America collided, they broke up and drifted toward their present locations, Anderson said. The remnants of that colossal crash formed mountains that now rim the North Atlantic.

On the west they’re called the Appalachians. On the east, they’re known by a variety of names — from the Western Alps in Norway to the Caledonides on the British Isles and Atlas Mountains in Morocco, where they end.

First, there was the Appalachian Trail, which winds 2,175 miles along the mountainous spine of the eastern United States. Then came the International Appalachian Trail, stretching the AT’s northern end in Maine to the edge of Canada’s Maritime Provinces, where Vikings long ago landed.

Now they’re extending the walk: across the Atlantic to western Europe, where the mountain chain’s other half loops south to Morocco.

As it’s now shaping up, the International Appalachian Trail will brush the east coast of Greenland before picking up in Ireland and Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It will resume on the mainland in Norway and proceed south through France, Portugal, nip western Spain and end in Morocco. Trails already exist along much of the conceptual route, planners point out, so participating countries in many cases can mark certain trail segments with the IAT sign to make it part of the network.

Where the trail meets the seas or overland gaps, hikers will have to make their own ferry or train arrangements.

One of the less than a dozen people to complete the IAT as it exists now is M.J. Eberhart — also known by his trail name, Nimblewill Nomad — a 71-year-old long-distance hiker who’s covered thousands of miles since the early 1980s.

“The fact that the Appalachians exist both here and in Europe — the extension would certainly seem logical,” Eberhart wrote in an e-mail. No word on what he thought of extending it to Africa, though I think we can assume that Nimblewill would approve.

Like restless hikers who just can’t sit still, visionaries whose years of work led to the IAT’s extension are thinking more internationally as they peer over time’s horizon toward the very creation of the Appalachians and plot their course to the ancient mountain chain’s geological end.

The Appalachian Trail, part of the U.S. National Park Service, grew from an idea in the early 1920s to completion in 1937. From Springer Mountain, Ga., about 60 miles north of Atlanta, it traverses 14 states before it ends with a cairn and rough wooden marker on the top of Maine’s mile-high Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Along the way are more than 250 primitive shelters and campsites.

In 1994, extending the AT into eastern Canada was proposed by Joseph Brennan, a former congressman then running for a third term as governor. The idea took hold and the route now extends 130 miles across Maine and 212 miles across neighboring New Brunswick, where it crosses the province’s highest point, Mount Carleton.

The 410-mile Quebec leg leads to the Gaspe Peninsula. From there, hikers can take a train ride south so they can access the mammoth bridge to Prince Edward Island and its 91 miles of trails.

Once back on the Canadian mainland, the trail leads to a ferry to Nova Scotia, where hikers cover 287 miles before ending at another ferry landing at the east end of the province for a ride to Newfoundland. The last leg of the journey is also the longest: 741 miles straight up the mountainous western edge of Newfoundland to Crow Head. The 1,862-mile IAT trail ends near L’Anse aux Meadows, where Norsemen landed and built a village a millennium ago.

“It’s the only place where you can hike on a long-distance trail and see whales and icebergs,” Anderson said.

It’s also where the crossover would begin to the European leg of the trail.

http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/morocco/morocco.html

Here is an excerpt:

Sacred sites of Morocco and Islamic pilgrimage from Northwest Africa

Islam was brought to North Africa by early Arab warriors conquering territories (Oqba Ben Nafi in 680 and Moussa Ben Nosair in 703-711) and by traders voyaging back and forth along ancient trans-Saharan caravan routes. The first African pilgrimages to Mecca were from Cairo during the era of the Fatamid dynasties (909-1171). These early Muslims, traveling in camel caravans across the Sinai Peninsula to the Hijaz region of Arabia (where Mecca is located), established a route that was used continuously until the 20th century. By the 13th century, pilgrim routes across North Africa from as far west as Morocco linked with the Cairo caravan to Mecca. Three caravans were regularly started from the Moroccan towns of Fez, Marrakech and Sijilmasa. They often combined on the route and proceeded under a united leadership eastward across the North African deserts. Composed of pilgrims, merchants and guards, the great caravans often had a thousand or more camels. Covering perhaps twenty miles a day and visiting the fabled Islamic mosques of Tlemcen (Algeria) and Kairouan (Tunisia), they took many months to reach Egypt. Beginning in the 19th century, a sea route through the southern Mediterranean to Alexandria became the most favored route for Moroccan pilgrims journeying to Mecca.

Early records show that the Islamic pilgrimage tradition in West Africa dates from the 14th century, when certain rulers from the region, recent converts to Islam, began to put the teachings of Islam into practice. These royal pilgrims traveled in opulent style with hundreds of slaves and warriors, carried gifts for the rulers through whose territories they passed, and for safety often joined the trans-Saharan caravans traveling from Morocco to Egypt. With the increasing Islamisation of the West African territories during the 15th and 16th centuries, the practice of royal pilgrimages declined to be replaced by large numbers of peasant pilgrims. Several pilgrimage routes across the sub-Saharan savannas gradually developed between 1600 and 1800 as Islam was introduced to these regions. The dangers and hardships involved in using both the trans-Saharan and savanna pilgrimage routes were extreme. The risk of death on the pilgrimage route from disease, thirst and violence was considerable, as was the possibility of enslavement. During certain periods the conditions were considered so bad that pilgrims departing for Mecca were not expected to return home. On departure they were obliged to sell their property and to give to their wives the choice of divorce if they were not accompanying them.

The 20th century European occupation of the Sahara and savanna lands brought increased security and transportation improvements that were to revolutionize the Mecca pilgrimage and greatly expand the numbers of pilgrims coming from West Africa. By the early 1900′s railways were transporting thousands of affluent pilgrims, while the less affluent simply walked along the tracks. Automobile and bus transport further contributed to the growth in pilgrim numbers. By the mid-20th century the savanna route, because of its less rugged terrain, had mostly replaced the far older Saharan route.

In the 1950′s the possibility of travel by air still further increased the numbers of pilgrims making the journey to Mecca, but not at the expense of the land routes. The land pilgrimage routes have continued to be popular. Factors explaining this continuing overland pilgrimage include poverty (air fare is too expensive for most Africans), the desire of pilgrims to visit famous places of Islam in North Africa, and, most of all, the belief that the difficulties incurred on the land routes (as contrasted to the rapid and easy air routes) actually increase the spiritual benefit of the pilgrimage. However, a post-colonial factor inhibiting the free movement of pilgrims across North Africa has been the rise in nationalism and the closing of borders to overland travelers. The source countries do not wish to lose their populations, and those countries along the land routes fear the development of substantial minority groups.

Sacred sites in Morocco

Scattered throughout the deserts, coastlines and mountains of Morocco are sacred sites and pilgrimage places specific to the indigenous Berber culture and the Roman, Jewish and Islamic people who settled in the northwest reaches of the African continent. The first inhabitants of this region, called the Maghreb, were the Berbers, (the word Berber is derived from the Greek word barbaros and anthropologists believe the Berbers may have a remote European-Asiatic origin). A Carthaginian trading presence was well established along the Mediterranean coast by the 3rd century BC. The Romans, who built their great city of Volubilis in the interior, followed this in the 1st century AD. The most notable, and lasting, immigrants, however, were the Islamic Arabs who began to enter the Maghreb between 703 and 711.

In 788 (or 787) AD, an event occurred that was to forever change the trajectory of Moroccan culture. Idris ibn Abdallah (or Moulay Idris I as he is called in Morocco), the great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad fled west from Baghdad and settled in Morocco. The heir to the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, Moulay had participated in a revolt against the Abbasid dynasty (which had usurped the leadership of the Umayyad dynasty and precipitated the split between the Shia and Sunni sects). Forced to flee Abbasid assassins, Moulay initially found asylum in Tangier but soon thereafter tried to establish himself among the remnants of the old Roman city of Volubilis. Before long he moved to the nearby region of Zerhoun, where he founded the town that is now called either Moulay Idris or Zerhoun (and which is the most venerated pilgrimage site in all of Morocco). The local Berber tribes, passionate neophytes of Islam, were convinced of Moulay’s power to lead as both king and iman (spiritual guide) and his exemplary conduct soon ensured his lordship over many of the Berber tribes.

http://moroccotravelblog.com/

Essaouria, formerly known as Mogador is located on the Western Atlantic coast of Morocco. The Director and actor Orson Welles stayed at the Hotel des Iles just south of Essaouria in the 1950’s during the time he filmed the classic version of “Othello.”

“Othello” is a film worth watching before your Essaouria tour as there is several scenes in “Othello” that were shot in Essaouira’s old labyrinthine medina. During Orson Welles stay in Essaouria he met Winston Churchill who was apparently another guest at Hotel des Iles. Winston Churchill was also a guest at the La Mamounia Hotel & Palace in Marrakech. In fact today, there is still a Winston Churchill dedicated room at La Mamounia that Moroccan travelers can visit on a one-day tour to Marrakech.