Posts Tagged ‘Essaouira’

Moroccan Door Knockers & The Hand of Fatima, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Moroccan Door Knockers & The Hand of Fatima, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

Moroccan door knockers can be found throughout Morocco and are palm-shaped. Door knockers in Morocco are a symbol of protection for the home as they are typically designed in the shape of the “hand of fatima” (Khamsa, Chamsa or Hamsa) and made of solid brass, cast iron or wood by a skilled artisan. Each door knocker that I’ve seen during my travels in the Magreb’s old cities of Marrakech, Essaouira or Fes have either been oxidized by the artist or they have developed a fabulous, aged green patina. The patinas are typically in various shades of green and are similar to those found on the statue of liberty in the New York harbor and on on ancient buildings in Europe. The green patina that forms on the chamsa Moroccan door knockers is natural and they resist corrosion which accounts for why they have remained on some of Morocco’s most extraordinary doors for centuries.

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Moroccan Doors of Essaouira, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Moroccan Doors of Essaouira, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

The magic of Morocco is found in many places and one of them is in the hand painted doors of Essaouira. To travel inside Morocco is to visit this vast country one door at a time. Moroccan doors in Essaouira are ordained with Moorish style motifs, chamsa door knockers and painted in a variety of hues such as in Majorelle blue and canary yellow. Doors in Morocco are a gateway to another world and bare emblem of history along with the secret lives in a Moroccan home. Made of wood, metal and plaster Moroccan doors are a photographers dream as they make for the perfect subject matter.

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Argan Oil & Goats in Trees, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Argan Oil & Goats in Trees, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

The first time I visited Morocco, I saw postcards that featured goats perched in Argan trees. Sure, I thought, this is a gag. Surely they must have either tied stuffed goats to branches or retouched photos. So the first time I visited Argan Country, near Essaouira and Agadir, boy, was I surprised. There were real goats in the trees! Munching away! I soon found out that was going on. The goats were exclusively found in argan trees. Argan is a relative of the olive, and the goats were eating the argan fruit. Argan is grown exclusively in the southwest region of Morocco. It is difficult to cultivate and as a result, wild trees are treasured. Argan oil is prized in Morocco and recently has been discovered by the West. It has been used for centuries for cooking and cosmetics. The oil is extracted from the kernel of the pits.

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Moroccan Food & A Menu for Moroccan Appetite, Your Morocco Tour Guide

Moroccan Food & A Menu for Moroccan Appetite, Your Morocco Tour Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

Moroccan food is considered some of the best in the world. The easiest way to discover the true flavors of Moroccan cuisine are to take a Moroccan cooking class or explore various restaurants in Morocco’s Imperial Cities such as Marrakech, Fes, Rabat or Essaouira on a Morocco tour. Another way to discover authentic Moroccan cuisine is to dine with a local family in a Berber Village. Berber villages are known for their unique fare as result that their main staples in making Moroccan traditional cuisine such as couscous are grown locally in their fields alongside special herbs which allows for amazingly tasteful food. Moroccan recipes such as baking bread by fire and a tajine on starlit night can be learning on a Sahara desert tour to the Erg Chebbi Dunes of Merzouga whereby your camel trekking guide takes you off on a journey into the vast dunes to a Sahara camp at sunset to learn the secrets of the Sahara. To fully enjoy a Moroccan meal one must arrive with an empty stomach and then fully prepare themselves for a three or four-course Moroccan feast. As the French proverb says, “Appetite comes with eating; the more one has, the more one would have” so make sure to visit Morocco with an open palate and a big appetite!

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Caroline Myss, The Sacred Spaces Morocco Tour, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Caroline Myss, The Sacred Spaces Morocco Tour, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

Smith Events and Travel Exploration Morocco have partnered together to create the first “Sacred Spaces Morocco Tour” featuring spiritual author, holistic speaker and medical intuitive Carolyn Myss. Pack your bags for a life-changing experience as you embrace Morocco, one of the ancient intersections of civilization with Caroline Myss! Attending a Morocco Tour with host and speaker, Caroline Myss will offer a once in a lifetime experience to those who are looking to discover the deeper aspects of Morocco and how its culture intersects with world religions and traditions.

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Top 10 Things To Do in Marrakech, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Top 10 Things To Do in Marrakech, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

Things to do in Marrakech. The Top 10 Things to do in Marrakech, Morocco is a hot list of activities and experiences that one can do alone, with their spouse or friends and family in this majestic “red hamra” city. The most popular activities typically included spending time in and around Marrakech along with a brief departure for a High Atlas Tour or a Sahara Tour.

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Top 10 Reasons To Visit Morocco, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Top 10 Reasons To Visit Morocco, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Vacations & Tours

Visit Morocco in 2011. Give us 10 Days and we will give you 10 Reasons to Visit Morocco and Not to Miss This Once in a Lifetime Experience! Morocco is a moderate Muslim country in North Africa that is known for it’s fascinating Imperial Cities, its majestic Sahara Desert, Berber villages, waterfalls, ancient Kasbahs and seaside towns. From region to region any Moroccan traveler will be stunned by the varied landscapes, the souks, the city street life and food that the country has to offer.

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How Does the Ramadan Fast Affect Tourists in Morocco. Your Morocco Travel Guide

How Does the Ramadan Fast Affect Tourists in Morocco. Your Morocco Travel Guide

Moroccan Festivals & Holidays, Moroccan History & Architecture

How does the Ramadan fast affect tourists traveling to the Imperial Cities, the Sahara Desert and other regions of Morocco during this high holy holiday? Can tourists eat or drink in public during Ramadan? This article should clear up the confusion on this issue for tourists, to explain the most polite solutions for tourist behavior at this time, and to assure tourists that there is no problem with them visiting Morocco during Ramadan. Because the Islamic calendar is lunar, holidays such as Ramadan advance by approximately ten days with each subsequent year. This means that Ramadan makes a cycle through the entire calendar of twelve months each twenty-some years. This year, Ramadan started on August 12th, 2010 in Morocco. The fast presently starts in Morocco at approximately 4:30 AM, and ends in the evening at approximately 7:30 PM.

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Morocco Tour, Trade Bead & Moroccan Jewelry Treasure Hunting, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Morocco Tour, Trade Bead & Moroccan Jewelry Treasure Hunting, Your Morocco Travel Guide

Moroccan Arts & Entertainment, Moroccan Festivals & Holidays, Moroccan History & Architecture, Moroccan Museums, Moroccan Shopping, Morocco Accommodations & Lodging, Morocco City Guides, Morocco Customs & Traditions, Morocco for Solo Travelers / Families / Couples, Morocco Natural Wonders, Morocco Style & Design, Morocco Vacations & Tours

Excitement awaits you on a Trade Bead & Moroccan Jewelry Treasure Hunting Tour Hosted by Travel Exploration and North African Jewelry Expert, Sarah Corbett. Come join us on a Morocco Tour Adventure that covers the Imperial City of Marrakech, the seaside artist colony of Essaouira and Southern Morocco’s hotspots: Tiznit, Taradount, Agdz, Zagora and Ouarzazate for bead making and treasure hunting for best antique amber and Berber silver jewelry in all of Morocco.

Travel Exploration specializes in tailor-made Morocco Tours with a distinctly authentic Moroccan flavor. Travel Exploration. Morocco provides unique itineraries that offer an unparalleled diversity of travel and terrain through a people that are naturally hospitable, warm and friendly. You can count on Travel Exploration’s benefits of an Anglo-Moroccan partnership as you depart on a Trade Bead & Moroccan Jewelry Treasure Hunting Tour. This Morocco Tour is an exclusive of Travel Exploration and created by Director, Alecia Cohen & North African Jewelry Expert, Sarah Corbett.

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Moroccan Coffee and Café Ambiance, Your Moroccan Travel Guide

Moroccan Coffee and Café Ambiance, Your Moroccan Travel Guide

Moroccan Festivals & Holidays, Moroccan Food & Drink, Morocco City Guides, Morocco Travel Tips, Morocco Vacations & Tours

njoying the ambiance in various Moroccan cities is partly what a trip to Morocco is all about. When traveling to Morocco, make sure to take time out to enjoy Moroccan coffee and the cafe ambiance that each city offers. Marrakech, Tangier, Essaouira and Agadir are known for having the most and the best cafe’s, the best variety of Moroccan Arabic coffee and are spacious, comfortable hotspots for people watching. Moroccan coffee is different from American coffee. The two most commonly-ordered types are black, served in a Moroccan teaglass, and coffee with milk, usually served in a cup, but sometimes in a tea glass.There are several types of coffee with milk. The first is café cassé, which means black coffee broken with a little bit of milk. The other common type is “café nss nss” (no vowel in nss), which means half coffee (made with water) and half milk.

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