Chefchaouen is a small city in northwestern Morocco, on the slopes of the Rif mountain range. The city is known for its architecture, delicious food, and the fact that most of the buildings in it are painted in different shades of blue, from almost blue to white. 35 thousand people live in Chefchaouen.

A traveler named Mad Polpo visited the city and shares his observations:

Chavin is only two hours from Tangier. On the picturesque hills, where olive trees grow, wild goats run and bees buzz…

The city was founded in 1471 on the site of a Berber settlement to protect northern Morocco from the Portuguese. Later, Spanish Muslims and Jews settled here, who formed the appearance of Chefchaouen following the patterns of their native Andalusia.

Despite the fact that Chefchaouen is small, like any Mediterranean town, it is quite noisy. It's easy to get lost in the city's alleys - all the houses are painted in shades of blue, from the base of the walls to the roofs.

Immediately after its foundation, the city was declared a sacred place and closed for centuries to non-believers on pain of death. At the same time, Chefchaouen retained its medieval appearance. In 1912, Spanish troops entered Chefchaouen, opening it to the outside world.

No one knows where the blue color came from. But there are a few guesses. Some say that this is a tribute to the Mediterranean, but the sea from Chefchaouen is 30 kilometers away. Others that the city was painted blue - the color of the water, in honor of the spring in the surrounding hills, which feeds not only Chefchaouen, but the entire region. Thirdly, the Jews were the first to paint the city: in Judaism, the blue color symbolizes paradise.

In 1956, the independence of Morocco was proclaimed and Chefchaouen was the last city where the Spanish flag was lowered. Many of its inhabitants speak Spanish, and the city itself is popular with tourists from Spain.

There are other versions… Locals believe that the blue color repels mosquitoes, which are numerous here. The color of the building resembles water, and insects do not like it. From afar, the city generally does not look like a small lake. Or simply that blue is a pleasant color that doesn't irritate and also doesn't reflect as much sunlight. By the way, hemp fields grow around Chavin. Do you need some more peace of mind?

The city of Chefchaouen, Morocco, is located in the northwestern part of the country, in the Rif mountains, between Tangier and Tetouan. There are several versions of the name of this city - Chefchaouen, Shifshaun, Chefshaouen.

The name of the city of Chefchaouen comes from the shape of the top of the Rif mountain, which rises above the city. It resembles the horns of a goat. "Chef Chaouen" translates as "look at the horns."

Getting to Chefchaouen is not so easy, but the color of this city deserves a long drive to get to it.

The city itself is one big attraction. It is famous primarily due to the blue and blue color of the houses and streets.

The streets in the city are narrow and winding, the roofs of houses, often red, made of tiles. The streets are very clean. But how the houses are painted is simply amazing - the walls are blue, blue, azure white.

It is the blue-blue and white colors of the streets that this city attracts the attention of numerous tourists who, despite the long journey, go to Chefchaouen.

Riad

A traditional Moroccan house is called a riad. Usually, from the outside, the riad looks like a gray one, while in Chefchaouen it looks like a blue, plastered wall with a small wooden door. It seems that such a house looks deaf and unpresentable. But the riad has a second, hidden from prying eyes, facade that overlooks the patio. Such a device at home perfectly protects privacy, from the side of the street it is impossible to guess what is happening inside. The owners are reliably protected by the thick walls of the fortress house.
Usually such a house has two floors, but there are exceptions. All living quarters are located around the courtyard, as if surrounding it from all sides with a gallery of rooms. In some large houses, trees grow in the patio and fountains are installed. And in smaller houses, the courtyard serves as a “living room” for the whole family. The decoration inside a traditional riad is usually very beautiful. The courtyard is paved with mosaic tiles. The walls can be white, or they can be the brightest colors. And the shutters and doors are often decorated with paintings.

Some riads have become small guest houses. Sometimes the owners live on the first floor, and the second floor is rented out to tourists.

Why is the city painted in such colors?

This tradition goes back to 1471. It was at this time that the Muslims, who defended their lands from the invasion of the Portuguese, built a fortress between the Reef Mountains. She had an extremely good location: she was protected by high mountain ranges, and the elevation on which the fortress was located made it possible to control nearby lands.

When in the XV-XVII centuries Jews from Spain found themselves here, who were looking for salvation, they decided to find refuge in this place. It was from them that this tradition went - to paint buildings in blue. The fact is that the Jews perform their prayers with the help of several attributes. One of them is a prayer scarf, which in turn has a tzitzit (a bunch of threads woven in a special way). And one of the main components of such a beam is a blue thread. It must necessarily be a special color "thelet", described in the Talmud, as "the color of the sea, similar to the color of the sky, similar to the color of the Throne of Glory of the Most High." The Jews painted their houses blue and in this way they remembered that God was very close to them, and in this way they could approach him.

Today, all shades are found on the streets of Chefchaouen: azure, like the surface of the sea, deep blue, reminiscent of infinity. However, initially tkhelet is a pale blue color, mostly close to white.

Sacred, closed city

For a long time Chefchaouen was declared a holy city. This completely closed the entrance to the territory for non-believers. Those who wanted to disobey had to risk their own lives. Despite the fact that Chefchaouen is geographically close to Spain, Portugal, as well as to the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar, until the beginning of the 20th century, only three Europeans visited the blue city.

Each of them had to try hard not to be discovered by the local population. So, the French explorer Charles Eugene Foucault, in order to get into the city, disguised himself as a rabbi, and stayed on the territory of the forbidden city for no more than an hour. The next intruder in the blue city was Walter Harris, a correspondent for The Times. He pretended to be a Moorish merchant, but for most of the time he managed to spend in Chefchaouen, he lived as a vagabond. And the least fortunate was William Summers. This American missionary managed to get into the territory of Chefchaouen, but soon after that, he was poisoned.

In 1912, when, thanks to the Franco-Spanish agreement, Spanish troops entered the territory of the blue city and presented its beauty to the outside world.

The most popular month to visit Chefchaouen is April. It is then that hundreds of exotic flowers bloom here, which further transform the beautiful city.

To create the color "thelet" the ancient Jews used a natural dye. It was extracted from some types of molluscs. Over time, the recipe for creating a "divine shade" was lost, and its production was stopped.

In addition, the city is famous for its wool. On the streets of Chefchaouen you can see many craft workshops. Chefchaouen is also famous for its bright woolen carpets, fabrics and excellent cheese made from the milk of a mountain goat.

The main attractions of Chefchaouen are located in the central square of the Old Town. There is a red sandstone fortress built in 1578 by the captive Portuguese, an unusual mosque with an octagonal minaret and magnificent mountains. In one of the towers there is a small ethnographic museum with a collection of embroideries and costumes.

In this unique city, you can feel the spirit of the Middle Ages, clean mountain air and an impressive atmosphere.

Photographer Anastasia Kolesnikova told PRTBRT about her two-week trip to Morocco.

We all love to travel and often start from well-trodden popular routes. But is everyone ready to go to a country far from the usual tourist attractions? Giant canyons, hot endless Sahara, a blue city of incredible beauty, waterfalls, snowy Atlas Mountains, a wild and friendly Oasis and much more! All this is Morocco.

Route

Casablanca - Chefchaouen - Fes - Er Rachidia - Merzouga - Ouarzazate - Marrakesh - Sidi Ifni (Legzira) - Essaouira - Casablanca. All this took 16 days.

Visa: You can stay in Morocco without a visa for up to 90 days.
Air travel: Direct air travel is operated by Royal Air Maroc, but with transfers it will be much cheaper.
Housing: Often when people hear "travel all over Morocco", they ask themselves: how is this possible? How did you find the right accommodation? For some reason, most people represent this country as an undeveloped Arab hole. In reality, the opposite is true.

The Kingdom of Morocco is very well prepared for travelers and is always happy to host them anywhere in the country. We searched for accommodation through Booking, Airbnb and directly on the spot. All options turned out to be very good and profitable. It is quite difficult to choose something special, because each city had its own flavor. We wanted to stay in traditional places where everything is saturated with the spirit of an African country. No five-star hotels filled with monotonous boring furniture and perfect service.

Car rent: We rented a car right at the Casablanca airport. Our requirements were modest: a good ride, roomy luggage, GPS, music and low fuel consumption. It turned out to be difficult to withstand the first Moroccan bargaining: we spent an hour in the closet! From 30 thousand rubles (approximately 5700 dirhams) they bargained for 20 thousand plus 6 thousand rubles for the navigator. GPS with a flooded map of the country is an absolutely necessary thing here, especially in cities. Even the best paper maps of Morocco do not shine with details - getting lost in the center is not worth anything. And the names of the streets are not customary to write here. ( If you do not want to spend money on a navigator, then download the Maps.me application in advance. - Approx. ed.)

National cuisine: The main national dish is tagine. This word means both the dishes and the dish cooked in it. What is a tagine? Clay pot with a high conical lid. It is very hermetic, due to this, no steam escapes during cooking, and no aroma is even felt. Therefore, the taste is rich and bright. Tagine can be of three types: chicken, fish and lamb meat. Without fail, the table is served with olives (sometimes several types) and a bread cake. The set lunch also includes soup, vegetable salad, dessert and drinks (both hot and cold).
Couscous is a well-known dish in Moroccan cuisine; it is usually served hot at the end of a meal. It is made from cereals and olive oil, the ingredients are stewed in a thick-walled cauldron with the addition of vegetables, raisins and lentils. Couscous is served with fragrant ksra flatbread. Drinks - fragrant green tea with fresh mint.

Casablanca

The main attraction of Casablanca is the Hassan II Mosque. The building stands on a ledge that is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest mosque in the country and the seventh largest in the world. With a minaret 210 meters high, it is the tallest religious building in the world. A laser is installed at the top of the minaret, the light from which is directed to Mecca.
Our first accommodation in Morocco exceeded all expectations: an Airbnb booking turned into a huge apartment, hospitable hosts and a laid table with treats. Here we were treated to Moroccan tea. It is drunk from small glass piles. The locals pour it from a high-lifted silver teapot.

Chefchaouen

Azure steps, cornflower blue shutters, turquoise flower pots and blue houses - this is Chefchaouen, the city where the sky has settled! You only need to walk around the city on foot, no transport will let you feel all the beauty of this place. And the roads here are narrow and paved. The walk should start from the central square of the Old Town, where the main monuments are concentrated. From the terraces of the cafe you can admire the view of the city, and the red sandstone fortress, and the mosque with an octagonal minaret, and the panorama of the majestic mountains.

In Chefchaouen we booked a riad - a traditional Moroccan house or palace. Riads usually have a patio with a garden, from where natural light penetrates into all rooms of the house. The interior of the blue riad Riad Nerja Chaouen is amazing: living rooms with cozy soft sofas and subdued light, soft carpets on the floor, friendly staff, excellent clean rooms. All this pleasure cost us about 6 thousand rubles for two nights from four.
Interesting fact: In the evenings, you will definitely meet locals selling marijuana. Chefchaouen is Morocco's leader in the cultivation of hemp, which the locals call chocolate. They grow it here for industrial purposes, and this does not affect the criminal situation in any way.

Fes

Five or six hours drive - and we find ourselves in the former capital of Morocco, Fez.
Fez is the third largest city in Morocco and has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is the embodiment of the history of the country and its spiritual and religious capital. And here are the world-famous dyers (Moulay Abdellah Quarter). They smell, as they say in all guidebooks, disgusting. But the Moroccans immediately give a bunch of mint at the entrance to somehow beat off the smells hovering around you. Entrepreneurial store owners will easily let you in so that you can look at the dyers from above for free. They expect you to buy something in return.

Fez has an excellent market (Medina of Fez) with a lot of handicrafts: dishes and carpets. Trading is required!

Be careful wandering the streets of Fes. They are full of secret passages that create real labyrinths, from which it will take a long time to get out. Therefore, we recommend finding a Moroccan guide. He will tell you about the city and guide you to the right places. You can find it in the city center.

Merzouga and the Sahara Desert

One of the goals of the whole trip is to look at the Sahara Desert, which is 500 kilometers through the Atlas Mountains. The road from Fez to Merzouga is one of the most beautiful and varied I have ever traveled: cedar forests soon gave way to Martian landscapes, red-brown slovenly villages, then mountainous snowy ridges, by morning - rocky valleys with palm oases. Sometimes I got the impression that you were not in Africa, but somewhere in Norway or Iceland. And just before the desert, everything changed again and became golden. Merzouga is the gateway to the Sahara for travelers, it was here that we felt like real heroes of an oriental fairy tale: wrapped in blankets from Fez, we sat by the fire on a dune and drank tea. By morning, the light of the sun slowly painted the sand pink, and the dunes towered hundreds of meters above us in warm graceful lines.
We also rented accommodation here on Airbnb - modestly Berber, but inexpensive and five minutes by car to the dunes. There were even camels and a donkey grazing in the yard!

Todra Gorge

The Todra Gorge, formed in the High Atlas Mountains, is well known to European rock climbers who hone their skills here. The river created the canyon, leaving at its narrowest point only ten meters wide between 300-meter vertical walls.
Palm oases invariably accompany any settlement here, successfully diluting the monotonous ocher color with greenery.

Film Studio Atlas Corporation

The route lies in Ouarzazate and the film studio Atlas Corporation. It is considered one of the largest in the world. In the Atlas, parts of Cleopatra's castle, the temple of Ra and Set, the huts of the Arabs, parts of Jerusalem, the Coliseum prison, Ali Baba's house and courtyard were erected in real size.

Walking around the film studio is an amazing thing: all the time you want to climb either on the stone block of a giant staircase, or on the roof of a rural house, from which, as in life, a second house has already grown, then you want to scatter and do somersaults, as in The Matrix , pushing off a giant stone column ... There is only one thing: all objects look very realistic, but in fact they are made of artificial materials and are very fragile.
Films shot in this film studio: "Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Gladiator", "Alexander", "Troy", "Clone", "Star Wars", "Babylon", "The Man Who knew too much”, “Kingdom of Heaven”, “The Last Temptation of Christ”, “Alexander the Great” and others.

Ouarzazate and Ait Ben Haddou

This ancient city is woven from dozens of kasbahs - clay fortresses of various heights, each of which is crowned with a battlement tower and decorated with openwork ornaments. Numerous round arches and narrow passages connect winding streets and create a complex labyrinth. On the slope itself, forming multi-tiered terraces, dwellings with flat roofs sheltered.
The valley of the Ouarzazate River runs through the desert, the river begins on the southern slopes of the High Atlas and is further lost in the sands of the Sahara. Red adobe kasbahs are surrounded by green palm groves - like a movie theater! And in fact, filmmakers do not miss the opportunity to use the unique natural scenery for filming: even if you have never been to Morocco before, the view of Ait Ben Haddou may be familiar to you from dozens of films.
Ksar has been and remains extremely popular as a filming location for films that use oriental scenes to one degree or another. "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Man Who Wanted to Be King", "Jesus of Nazareth", "Time Bandits", "The Pearl of the Nile", "Sparks from the Eyes", "The Last Temptation of Christ", "Under the Cover of Heaven" were filmed here. , "Mummy", "Gladiator", "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time".

Marrakesh

The main attraction of the city is the central square of Jemaa el Fna, for which tourists from all over the world come here. This is the heart of the city, which lives 24 hours a day. The smell of dried apricots and spices, fresh orange juice, the cries of fortune-tellers, dancers, speakers, healers, beggars, tattoo artists, snake charmers with cobras, hundreds of people. All this will drag you into the whirlpool right here.

Nothing interesting happens in the square in the morning. It all starts after lunch. People begin to gather on the square, hastily set up pavilions, set up roughly knocked together benches and tables, roll out boilers and begin the nightly action. The entire center of the huge square is transformed into an open-air kitchen. Here you can taste delicious meshui - tender and very juicy meat, which is fried on coals for several hours; tagine - lamb stewed in a special clay pot; Hariru is a thick, rich tomato soup with lentils and lemon. After sunset, the entire area is shrouded in clouds of steam and smoke, hundreds of small fireflies begin to burn.

In the northwestern part of Morocco, on the slopes of the Rif Mountains, is the colorful city of Chefchaouen, famous for its rich history, picturesque nature and beautiful ancient architecture. However, its main feature lies in the color of the buildings running down the slopes, the vast majority of which are painted in various shades of blue - from light blue to azure. The combination of all the advantages of Chefchaouen makes it one of the most beautiful and popular cities in the world.

The founding of the city dates back to 1471. Some time after its inception, towards the end of the century, it became a haven for a large number of Muslims and Jews expelled from Spain. They liked the Moroccan town lying on a hill, surrounded by walls and protected by mountain ranges on one side, which promised to serve them as a reliable fortress. Upon arrival in Chefchaouen, they began to shape its appearance according to the patterns of their native Andalusia. That is why most of the walls in the old quarters are painted in a sacred color for Jews, which always reminds believers of heaven and God.

Due to the fact that for several centuries Chefchaouen had the status of a sacred place and non-believers were forbidden to visit it on pain of death, it has retained its medieval appearance intact to this day. The tradition of painting buildings in various shades of blue has taken root among the local population, becoming an integral feature of the old part of the city.

You can get to Chefchaouen from the city closest to it - Tangier, the road from which takes 5 hours by bus. The ticket price is $4.

After taking a short break in Israel and dreaming about the "Big Three", we return to Morocco, a real city of dreams. In fact, strange as it may seem to say it now, because of Chefchaouen this whole trip was started. That is, of course, there was also the Sahara and Kasbah Ait Bin Haddu, Tangier and the Atlas Mountains, but it was the blue city, from the moment I first saw it in photographs, that beckoned me to this beautiful and mysterious country.

We stopped with you at the very entrance to Chefchaouen

Already at the entrance you can see all the shades of white and blue

Although it is not yet so noticeable from here that the dominant color of Chefchaouen is blue

We stop at the foot of the gates of the Medina

No, this is not yet the entrance to the Old City, although there are enough beautiful houses and mosques here

Historic Bab El Ain Gate - built during the reign of Moulay Ali Ben Musa Rashid el-Alami (1471-1511), the founder of the city. About him a little lower.

And immediately everything is blue

Like doors

So are the streets

You can argue for a long time, probably, is Chefchaouen more beautiful than Tangier -

Or than the white and blue Kasbah of Udaya in Rabat -

But in my opinion Chefchaouen is the most beautiful of all

It's something incredible

From some corners it's just really breathtaking

Or from houses. This is where my jaw dropped.

If anyone has not read my past posts - Chefchaouen is located in the Rif mountains, not far from Tangier - and Tetouan

The city was founded in 1471. Moulay Ali Ben Musa Rashid el-Alami (a descendant of Idris I, and through him - then the Prophet Muhammad) built a small fortress here in order to repel the attacks of the Portuguese. Kasbah, by the way, has survived to this day.

Twenty years later, the city began to develop rapidly, since it was here that Jews and Moriscos (Muslims of Andalusia) fled in large numbers after the completion of the reconquest - the capture of Spain by Christians.

In 1492, they captured Granada and literally three months later issued the Alhambra Edict ordering all non-believers to leave the country.

This is where the tradition of painting houses blue begins.

And she went, like everything else in the world, from the Jews)

Jews believe blue is the color of heaven

And he reminded them of God

And also about the promised land, to which they will someday return (I don’t know, though, whether they dreamed of Israel and the lost Jerusalem, or Spain and the lost Granada, Seville and Cordoba)

Andalusian influence in Chefchaouen is also felt

Porches lined with multi-colored tiles

And sometimes doors too

In 1948, when the State of Israel was established, the majority of Jews left Chefchaouen.

And the tradition of painting houses blue has been preserved.

By the way, I have a question about this - if the Jews knew how to paint cities in the Diaspora so beautifully

Why don't they do it in Israel itself?

It seems that the climate is similar, there is no shortage of paint kakbe.

Why do all the cities (in the color sense of the word) look like my life?

I'm not talking about the city where I live, Bnei Brak, whose gray square boxes make me want to hang myself every day.

So you can not be surprised that I am so delighted with Chefchaouen

The city has a respectable second place in the list of my favorite moments in Morocco -

And it will clearly enter the list of my ten favorite cities in general - in its next update.

It is interesting to compare Schauen with small European towns. Let's say Torun - Akureyri - or Castle Comb -. The comparison is difficult, because the style is completely different, but the Moroccan city is clearly not inferior to its European counterparts.

Fountain Bab El Souk. Built in the forties of the XX century, it is famous for its special ornament. There are many such fountains in the Medina of Chefchaouen, I will talk about the rest in the second part.

Returning to the history of the city - it got its name from the Berber word Ishaouen, meaning "horns" (two mountain peaks surrounding the city look like horns).

In 1920, the Spaniards captured the city (recall, a few years before that, an uprising of local tribes against European colonialism began), and made Chefchaouen part of Moroccan Spain. However, unlike Ceuta and Melilla, they gave up the city after Morocco gained independence in 1956.

Mezquita (mosque) Bab El-Suq, located near the fountain. Built with money raised by the residents of the Souk quarter.

Wikipedia, by the way, reports that Chefchaouen was repainted blue by Jews, but those who fled here from Hitler in the thirties. Another proof that you should not believe everything written on Wikipedia. But at least they were not mistaken about the Jews, and thanks for that

Well, while we go through the market

To the main square

It's called Uta Hammam

And here, as it usually happens, the main attractions are located. The already mentioned Kasbah (details about it will be in the next post)

Great Mosque. Built by Prince Mohammed Ben Ali Ben Rashid during his reign (1540-1560)

Andalusian courtyards

Well, the market, of course. If you suddenly need to buy a leather handbag.

Another thing that is very easy to buy in Chefchaouen is kief (marijuana, hashish, and so on). The whole city just smelled this wonderful smell, and it becomes clear why hippies from all over the world used to come here)

On this pleasant note, we will stop. To be continued)