From the bus station in Marrakech, I walked next door to the train station and bought a first-class ticket to Meknes. The train left in a couple of hours. In my coach I started to make conversation with a guy wearing a “Hawaii” t-shirt – thought he might be American, but he was from Germany. He was a tour guide and traveling to Casablanca to meet up with his next tour. He gave me some great tips about traveling in Morocco. The gentleman sitting across from me introduced himself as “Ali” and said he worked in a tour company in Fes, which had connections with the Rick Steves tour company of Seattle. He was also very helpful in giving me Morocco travel information, and recommended a budget hotel in Meknes.  He also suggested to visit Fes as a day tour from Meknes, since they were fairly close and linked by a train. He called one of his friends who was a Fes tour guide and arranged for him to meet me at the Fes train station the next morning for a guided tour.  Such spontaneous tourist services!

On arriving at the train station of Meknes, I hired a taxi and gave the driver the name of the hotel Ali had given me. It was in the old part of Meknes, right outside the medina walls. The price was great – 60 DM for a single room or about $9 US with a bathroom and shower down the hall.

Meknes is one of the four “Imperial Cities” of Morocco, which once served as the county’s capital.  The others being Marrakech, Fez and the current capital of Rabat. My walking tour of the Meknes medina was very interesting, but the old sites were spread over a large geographic area. As expected, I was lost for a good part of the time. 

The population of the greater Meknes area is about 900,000 people, but this was split between the "new town" and the medina, and the medina was much smaller and compact.

One of the main entrances to the medina, Bab el Mansour, with the mousoleum of Mouley Ismail in the background

I visited the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismael, who ruled Morocco in the late 1600’s and was credited with moving the capital from Fes to Meknes and making it a great city. It was open to non-Muslims after 3 pm.