Friday 12 October 2012

The impossible task

How to describe 1001 nights in a few lines? How to capture the Orient, the unfathomable mysteries of this ancient world? How to make you hear the screams of the water traders, or the thousand sounds of the Jemal El F'naa, the Grand Market Place in the heart of the Medina of Marrakech? How to make you smell the bouquet of incense, fruit, freshly tanned leather, donkey's droppings, Henna, all the oils from all these nuts and almonds, wood, sweat, and tobacco, all wafting through the impossibly large labyrinth of the Souks?
The throngs, the noise, the chaos, the delights for the senses?
There is only one way - you have to see, smell, touch for yourself… Sorry, folks! But to give you a clue about the overnight fairy tale we had the pleasure to be part of, here are a few images of the overland ride, of donkey carts in vast plains, of ornaments so rich they make you marvel at their beauty for a long time, of peaceful courtyards in abandoned palaces, endless rows of sparkling lamps, all crafted by old weathered hands, and finally also about a Marrakech that is transforming under the rule of a young king, transforming into a well-known image of modern times… The miracle, however, remains.