Private Marocco Imperial Cities Tour.
This isn’t a simple tour, this is a true experience!
Private Tour by private car with private driver, private local guides and private
This Private imperial cities Tour, can begin and finish of Casablanca or Marrakesh or Rabat or Fez and made in a direction as in the other one.
Authenticity & exoticism:
Throughout Morocco’s history is written on the walls of the 4 Imperial cities Tour: Marrakech and the Jemaa El Fna place, Fez and the Nejjarine Fountain , Meknes and Bab El Mansour, Rabat and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, but this also Volubilis and Casablanca with the Hassan II Mosque, all classified as World Heritage by Unesco.
“A great king, great city,” wrote in the fourteenth century illustrated Maghrebian historian Ibn Khaldun. Obviously, the imperial capitals are the heritage of the different dynasties These rulers wish to set in stone the power of their reign. When a Moroccan dynasty chooses his residence in Fez, Marrakech, Rabat or Meknes, the city became the capital is adorned with monuments (palaces, mosques, mausoleums) that reflect the prestige of the prince in the eyes of his contemporaries and history. World of grandeur, refinement and luxury, the royal city is a mythical universe, which inspires medieval authors legendary images.
We take you where others do not go! Without the deadlock on key best interests of Imperial Cities Tour in Morocco, outside the traditional tourist routes to discover places little visited. See the little “extras” that others do not see in their tours.
Go in the footsteps of the Sultans:
You go in the footsteps of the king who had 500 concubines and 15,000 horses or the other pile and just who only wanted the glory of the Lord by building Fez while this vizier (former slave) magically and by palace intrigues proclaimed himself King regent, built the Bahia palace to her favorite, no less than 150 rooms. Other kings do not fear the death of their living, have built their graves and have excelled the Saadian Tombs. Casablanca modern city is no exception to the tradition, and a great King offered him a masterpiece of Arab-Muslim architecture: the great Hassan II mosque that can hold 25,000 people inside and 80,000 in outside!
This is one exemple pf programme tour.
Programme: Imperial cities Tour:
- Day 1: CASABLANCA
Arrival, warm welcome by your guide. Transfer to your hotel in Casablanca
For those looking for a taste of old Hollywood glamour, an a optional trip to Rick’s Café is a must. This beautiful bar and restaurant was inspired by the Rick’s Café from the film Casablanca and the décor does its best to live up to it. Serving American, French and Moroccan food, head along on a Sunday to enjoy the evening jazz session and pop up to the 1st film for a free screening of the legendary film, You do not meet sam the pianist but certainly you will listen to the famous song: As time goes by. - Day 2: Casablanca – Rabat – Meknes
After de breakfast, this morning we visit the richly decorated Hassan II Mosque, (exterior, inside visit 12€ in spot) one of the largest religious building in the world after the mosque in Mecca, it would comfortably fit Rome’s St Peter’s inside.
The statistics are staggering: it is over 200 meters long, 100 meters wide, 65 meters wide, has the tallest Minaret in the world at 210 meters and can accommodate 25,000 worshippers, plus an impossible to imagine 80,000 outside. 35,000 master artisans labored night and day to create this exquisite masterpiece. You enter through one of the huge bronze or titanium doors decorated with traditional inscriptions, but the real draw is inside. Onyx columns, marble of every imaginable shade, intricate stucco work, a remarkable carved cedar roof, huge expenses of elaborate ceramics combine with fine metalwork and flamboyant Venetian glassware to create at once a harmonious and yet astonishing Moroccan architectural masterpiece.
After we have a panoramic tour, than departure for Rabat a capitol of Morocco
Rabat,is a Unesco World Heritage, the first of the Imperial Cities where we see the Medina and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. Guarded by two mounted, traditionally robed spear-carrying ‘lancers’, it is built in traditional style, the grandfather and father of the present king are buried here and its contemporary mosaics and spiral designs make a fascinating comparison with the adjacent Hassan Mosque, a wonder of the medieval Moorish world with its great minaret left unfinished when its founder died in 1199. If completed it would have been the largest building in the world at that time. The harbor is full of traditional fishing boats and on the opposite river bank is Sale, Rabat’s twin city where Robinson Crusoe was enslaved before his final escape to Brazil. Route for Meknes.
- Day 3 : Meknes – Volubilis – Fès
“it is a place made for painters … the beautiful abounds … the beautiful runs the streets, I am stunned by all that I saw, I am at this moment like a man who dreams. ”
Eugene de Lacroix said of Meknes
Breakfast, guided visit to MEKNEs, a Unesco World Heritage, the 16th century capital whose ruler, Moulay Ismail, modelled himself on France’s ‘Sun King’, Louis XIV. After plundering his entire country he opened his amazing palace decorated with the most intricate colorful stucco work, huge beautifully detailed bronze doors and stunning mosaics via Volubilis, the westernmost outpost of the Roman Empire. Wonderfully isolated, set amongst gorgeous rolling hills and olive groves, it is a haunting sight, silent and almost ghost-like. Here our guided tour will ensure you appreciate Volubilis historic importance and its stunning mosaics:
The Roman ruins of Volubilis, a UNESCO World Heritage site, stretched out over 40 hectares, are the most well preserved ruins in Morocco.
The Romans began building the city of Volubilis around 40AD in order to keep control of this North African region, which occupied successively by the Greeks, Berbers, Jews and the Carthaginian merchants. In the second and third centuries, the region began to develop more rapidly when the Romans began cultivating grain. The victory Arch, facing the main route and built in 217 in honor of the Roman emperor Caracalla, formally had a bronze chariot
MEKNES One of Morocco’s most beautiful historical cities, its twenty two Kilometers of town wall, monumental gates and the ruins of an immense palatial complex form an impressive and curious backdrop for the meeting point of Morocco’s main roads. The 17th century sultan Moulay Ismail wanted to create a royal capital here that would rival Versailles. He had an army of bricklayers, black slaves and several hundred captured Christian slaves build 120km of town wall, dream palaces, stables for 12,000 horses, hanging gardens watered by a four-hectare pond and immense storage sheds. After almost a century of construction, he left one of the most beautiful cities in Moorish-Arabic style.
The tour of this “Moroccan Versaille” and sightseeing includes Bab El Mansour, considered as the finest gateway in Morocco. First, we will pass through the triumphal arch standing at sixteen meters high with an eight-meter long arch, the intricately patterned triumphal arch argued to be the most beautiful in Morocco. Enter Place El-Hedime (Square of Ruins) which links the medina and the Kasbah. The square lined with modern residential buildings and a covered food souk (market). Continue to FEZ. Day 4 : Fès
After breakfast, the whole day will be devoted to discovering Fez, a Unesco World Heritage and the oldest of the imperial cities, home to the world’s first university dating from the 9th century and one of the most complete medieval cities in existence. Surrounded by huge defensive walls, it seems suspended in a time warp, somewhere between the middle Ages and the modern. But it’s more than that, it is a living city almost devoid of tourists, where whilst wandering amongst its amazing 9,000 tiny streets you experience its noisy hawkers selling everything from colorful vegetables, to delicious middle eastern pastries flavored with cinnamon and honey. Mind your backs for the passing of the only transport-mule or donkey! The haunting sound of the call to prayer resonates over the traditional rooftops whilst skilled artisans noisily beat metal into pans and intricate metal-ware as they have for centuries. . Visit of the medieval Medina. You will also explore the famous souks where artisans still labor in the age-old oriental tradition. Lunch on your own. Continue sightseeing in the afternoon.
Within the medina, we will the following historical sites:
►Medersa Bou Inania: An (Islamic school) founded by Abu Inan Faris that is highly decorated from floor to ceiling. The Medersa is one of the few religious places in Morocco that is accessible to non-Islamic tourists.
►Karaouine Mosque: Fatima built Morocco’s second largest mosque in 857. The Karaouine Mosque became the home of the West’s first university and the world’s foremost center of learning at the beginning of the second millennium.
►University of Al-Karaouine: Founded in 859, this university is one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world and considered the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning in the world.
►Medersa el Attarin: A (Coranic school) that was named for local spice merchants known as attar. Founded by Sultan Abou Saïd in the 14th century as a students’ dormitory, attached to the Karaouine Mosque.
►Zaouia Moulay Idriss II: A zaouia (shrine) dedicated to and the tomb of Moulay Idriss II, who ruled Morocco from 807 to 828 and founded the city of Fez for the second time in 810.
►Dar Batha: A Hispano-Moorish palace dating from the end of the 19th century that houses admirable collections of traditional art from Fez.
Fes is not easily engaged to reach it, it is necessary to return by the main entrance, at once visible and veiled, of the sacred. Because Fes is a sanctuary. It is so moreover that soufis, these initiated of the Islam, always called her: Zaouïa. The traveler who came by far knew that by arriving near the city, it is to his founder and to his very patron saint that he asked for the hospitality. For him, Fes is the city of Moulay Idriss. Many of fassis still know by heart what the commentators report as being the words, during the inaugural prayer, during the saint: «Ô God, You know that I did not build this city by vanity, by desire of fame or by pride. But I would want that you are liked there, that Your Book is Read to it and Your Law applied as long as will last the world. Ô Dieu, guide towards the good those who live there and helps to carry out him, veil for them the sword of the anarchy and the dissidence …»Day 5 : Fès – Marrakech (by high-way 5h)
Early wake up and breakfast, departure for Marrakesh.
Day 6 : Marrakech
After the breakfast, guided visit of Marrakesh, an Unesco world Heritage, once an oasis on the caravan routes to the south, it became a natural center of commerce and the capital city during medieval times. Surrounded by almost intact medieval walls little has changed and in the central square Jemaa el Fna is one of the world’s greatest spectacles. UNESCO lists that like Oral heritage of humanity. Here, especially atmospheric at dusk, street restaurants serve all kinds of delicacies with mouth-watering aromas filling the air, surrounded by a kind of a medieval circus. Storytellers recount tales of old, whilst fire-eaters and skilled acrobats entertain onlookers. Scribes write letters and open-air dentists and barbers industriously practice their trades. Have your shoes cleaned, watch snake charmers and see herbalists dispensing mystical remedies. Musical troupes lithely move to the soulful heavy drumbeat, which thuds hypnotically in the balmy warm of the Moroccan evening. This eclectic mix makes Marrakesh one of the most exciting and romantic places you will ever visit.
Visit the Bahia palace:
Is one of the outstanding Moroccan historical monuments, was built in the late nineteenth century, as most of the Arab-Andalusian palaces, it contains beautiful gardens and lovely patios, and has 150 rooms lavishly decorated. The construction of the palace was undertaken by the Moroccan architect El Mekki on behalf of the Grand Vizier Ba Ahmed ben Moussa called Ba Hmad(former slave) (1841-1900) to house his four wives and 24 concubines.
Under the French protectorate, General Lyautey, settled in the palace.
The Badi palace
It was Raised by Ahmed al-Mansur, a replica of the Alhambra, and made with the most precious materials from Italy (marble), Sudan (gold dust), India (porphyry) and even China (jade ). The Badi, struck his contemporaries by his Koubba al zoujjaj his “glass dome” made from translucent crystal. But all this disappeared, dismantled, by Sultan Moulay Ismail 1695. This palace reserved for the reception of ambassadors coming from Spain, England and the Ottoman Empire while considering the Saadian Morocco as a powerful force whose influence reached the borders of Niger and Mali (large gold-producing region). Under the reign of the Saadian dynasty, Marrakesh found its role as point of contact between the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan African world, through the caravan routes
Saadiens tombs:
The Saadian tombs in Marrakech turn back to the period of the great sultan Ahmad al-Mansur Saadi (1578-1603). These tombs discovered in 1917, and then restored by the Fine Arts Department. These tombs impress visitors with their beautiful decoration. The mausoleum houses the body of a sixty Saadiens, including Al-Mansour, his followers and his family. The building consists of three rooms. The mausoleum is the most prestigious room of twelve columns. This room houses the tomb of Sultan Ahmed El Mansour son. Its dome carved cedar wood, and stucco, the graves are made from Carrara marble from Italy. This mausoleum is a beautiful example of Moorish decorative art. Outside, there are the graves of soldiers and servants, and a garden of the necropolis.
Marrakesh Souks:
A real labyrinth where the crowd snatches you then brings you into the game of rays of light.
In a maze of shady streets, we cross the copper souk where dinandiers hammer the metal ancestral way. In the souk of the dyers, they dry large skeins of wool with rich colors, stretched from one wall to another on poles. At the souk aux tapis, we sell at auction to the highest bidder.
In addition, the potters souk presents tagine dishes, glazed pottery and beautiful ceramics. We also cross the souk of jewelers, leatherworkers and cabinetmakers. In the end the spice souk, there, the scents of saffron, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and orange blossoms daze the senses
further on the shelves of apothecaries line up amber, musk, henna pots, jasmine or rose extract vials.Day 7 : Marrakesh /or Casablanca
After breakfaste Departure to Casablanca, where you will spend the night.Day 8 : Transfer
Transfer to the aeroport.