Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
March 17, 2007

Multicultural Morocco: Villagers' hospitality, ties to 'Babel' and Western music make exotic Draa Valley feel not so far away.
By Adam Karlin Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.11.2007

It's not every day you get to celebrate your birthday with the kid who showed up Brad Pitt in an Oscar-nominated movie. It's rarer to do so while exploring a picturesque aspect of African cultural history — but I'm getting ahead of myself. A couple of months back, I was in Morocco, rolling from the over-touristed bazaars of Marrakech to the sighing heaves of Erg Chigaga (the Chigaga Dunes) in the south. I was traveling by Jeep along the road between the desert and the Atlas Mountains. The dunes were shifting into blasted plains of sharp rocks, smooth rocks, jagged rocks and brown, brown dirt. One night in the desert I watched the stars while camels groaned, the smell of their dung mixing with wood smoke and the waning heat of the desert day.

The next day, gradually, oasis: 220 kilometers of it. The pockmarked ground was cut by the muddy Draa River, and on either side, the Draa Valley, one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in Morocco. Ksours, the fortified mud- and clay-walled villages of the valley, squatted by flowering palm and date groves. African children were throwing stones at goats; pale-skinned Berber women were balancing baskets of palm fronds on their heads. Inside the ksours, layered like Russian nesting dolls, were more walls, marked by attractive geometric patterns: thickly hatched diamonds and wheat stalks. It wasn't the delicate Arabic calligraphy you find in Marrakech or Fez, but a blend of the arts of Berbers and West African merchants who beat the Draa River route all the way to the Mediterranean.

Morocco is often characterized as a crossroads between Europe and the Middle East, but here it bled between Africa and Arabia, too. Every town in the valley testifies to the days when Africans, Berbers and Jews (most of whom immigrated to Israel in the 1950s) formed into multiethnic communities that protected their caravan and oasis wealth behind the dry ksour walls.

In Tamnougalt, a village that had turned its mud castle into the posh (yet very affordable) Chez Yacob hotel, my girlfriend and I decided to ring in my new year. We had tagine and couscous for dinner (in Morocco, you always have tagine and couscous for dinner), and as night fell, I heard drums pounding off the narrow village streets. The noise came from just outside our hotel: a circle of men and village boys, some black, some Arab, some with roots as Jewish as pastrami on rye. They motioned us over, and we slurped tea while they joked in the muddy Moroccan pidgin of French, Berber and Arabic (my little French, for the record, served me very well in Morocco). A kid squatted next to me. "Big movie star," a man said, smiling. I smiled back, figuring they were joking. "Brad Pitt," he said. Other boys rolled their eyes, like they'd heard this story a thousand times. Then one of the hotel managers spoke in fluent English. "No, really!" he exclaimed. "He has just been in a movie with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. 'Babel'!" The boy nodded excitedly, and now his friends followed suit, eager to claim some shared fame. At the time, I dismissed the story as hyperbole. About a month later, though, while watching a DVD of "Babel," my jaw dropped as Boubker Ait El Caid — the boy in the drum circle — shot Cate Blanchett in the shoulder and basically upstaged a cast of A-listers with his impassioned admission of guilt.

But on my birthday, he and the hotel manager asked me to trade an American tune for their Berber ones. I hummed a few bars but got cut off. "Is that Bryan Adams?" "No." "We like Bryan Adams." Technically, Adams is Canadian, but they were already halfway into "Summer of '69." That was how I turned 26: watching the stars enflame the African sky in a mud castle, surrounded by friendly Moroccans singing Western pop songs. El Caid was there, but there was little babble that night; our inability to speak each other's languages warmed a shared affection, the connection that grows when two travelers' curiosity and one village's hospitality come face to face.

Getting around: The guides at Desert Dream ( www.sahara-desert-dream.com ) in Ouarzazate are a roguish, lovable, highly recommended bunch; driving and camel trekking tours (all meals covered) run anywhere from $50 to $200 per day.

● Adam Karlin is contributing to Lonely Planet's new Washington, D.C., and USA guides. "Travels With Lonely Planet" is coordinated by commissioning editor Jay Cooke. You can e-mail him at jay.cooke@lonelyplanet.com. For more travel information, visit lonelyplanet.com.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/172823
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Over 300 archaeological specimens discovered in Karaouine mosque.
by Hassan Benmehdi in Fez – 12/03/07

While repairing the floor of the great prayer hall in Karaouine Mosque, workers discovered archaeological remains dating back to the 12th century. Rare remains dating back to the 12th century have been discovered in the 9th century Karaouine Mosque in Fez. According to archaeologist Ahmed Tahiri, stonework structures were discovered buried underneath the floor of the central prayer hall of the famous mosque during restoration work. An archaeological dig made over an area measuring around 172 square metres unveiled a number of dwelling-houses and a cul-de-sac.

"This archaeological find relates to four periods, all of them prior to the Almoravid expansion [of the mosque] in 529AH (1134AD), and dates back to the period immediately after the first Karaouine Mosque was built in 245AH (859AD)," Tahiri explained. He added that the remains relate to the Almoravid Dynasty, whose major architectural monuments were later altered or rebuilt by the Almohads. "This is why the historic monuments of the Almoravids are among the rarest of all from Moroccan history, and it’s also why this find is particularly important." In all, over 300 items were discovered during the dig. According to Tahiri, the painted plaster found on some of the walls of the houses constitutes examples of lines and decorative motifs never previously seen.

The restructuring work began on the Karaouine mosque in January 2006 and is due to be completed in June. "We are at an important stage in repairs to a place of worship which has suffered severe infrastructure problems. We must restore it in the proper way. Things are all go at the moment," contractor Mohamed Fikri Benabdellah, said.

Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs Ahmed Taoufiq told Magharebia that most of the work has been completed. "We’re in the final stage now because we’ve managed to overcome some technical hitches. We now expect the contractor to keep to the timetable set out in the specifications. In any case, I think the Karaouine mosque will be ready by next Ramadan," Taoufiq said. The total cost of the restoration will be $3.1m.

The mosque was built by Fatima Fihria, the daughter of a wealthy Tunisian merchant from Kairouan in 859AD and forms the central hub of the medina of Fez. Covering a total surface area of 7,800 square metres, it can hold up to 10,000 worshippers. At one time it was one of the greatest universities of the Muslim world, attracting students from Africa, Europe and the Arabian Peninsula who came to study medicine, philosophy, theology and literature.
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Morocco tightens security to allay public fears.
By Sarah Touahri  13/03/2007

Following a suicide bombing in Casablanca on Sunday, the Moroccan government reaffirmed its commitment to fighting terrorism in the country. After a terrorist attack at an Internet cafe in Casablanca killed one person and injured four others Sunday (March 11th), many expressed relief at the "limited effects" of the blast. Only the suicide bomber, Abdelfettah Raydi, was killed. An accomplice, identified as Youssef Khoudri, was arrested fleeing the scene. Three others were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. The attack was conducted in Casablanca’s residential district of Sidi Moumen, home to the May 16, 2003, bombers. Officials announced Monday that the Internet café was not the intended target, and that the young men were likely trying to make contact with their terrorist cell when the blast occurred.

Following the attack, Communication Minister Nabil Ben Abdellah told Magharebia that what happened in Casablanca was "fortunately limited", adding that the terrorists had "other objectives". He said his government would continue to fight terrorism with "vigilance and determination" by dismantling terrorist cells and collaborating with the international community.

Ben Abdellah explained that in light of terrorist activities in the Maghreb, and available information on the terrorist threat faced by the region, the government has decided to boost its presence on the ground and increase surveillance in an effort to prevent any activities likely to threaten public safety or property. Checks will be stepped up at transit points and borders, while people and groups suspected of having links with extremist groups will be put under closer surveillance.

The country's security services have been increasing their public presence throughout the country in recent weeks. Police are visible everywhere, on all major streets. Even parking attendants have been ordered to inform the police if they see any suspicious behaviour.

Since February 24th, the security services have been pursuing two men named Mohamed Bakali and Mohamed Agbalou who are suspected of links with terrorist groups, in particular Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Measures taken by the Moroccan authorities to tackle religious extremism since the May 16, 2003, attacks in Casablanca have led to the dismantling of a number of radical groups and prosecutions for terrorism-related offences.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/03/13/feature-02
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Morocco/Egypt: Educational Reform's Selective Benefits.
Florian Kohstall

On January 22, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif officially launched Nile University . Located in the high-tech development zone Smart Village , 20 km northwest of Cairo, it is the first Egyptian private university focusing on post-graduate studies and research. Since 1996, more than ten private universities have been established. Four Egyptian private universities tested the terrain first; in 2002 French and German universities followed. Now, they are not only competing with the prestigious American University in Cairo (AUC) founded in 1919 but also with British and Canadian Universities. A Russian and a Chinese university are in the making.

The boom of private universities in Egypt is only one of several aspects of internationalization affecting higher education in the Arab world. Many countries in the region — often considered resistant to trends of international homogenization — are drawing upon foreign expertise to build new universities as well as to modernize their public higher education systems. Since 2002, Egypt has implemented a World Bank-sponsored Higher Education Enhancement Program for its fifteen public universities and fifty-one technical colleges. A National Agency for Accreditation and Assessment, built on the Anglo-Saxon model, is one of the program's core projects. Morocco launched a reform of its public universities in the 2003-2004 academic year by introducing the European LMD (Licence, Master, Doctorate) degree system. With the support of the French government and the World Bank, Morocco aims to adapt its universities to international standards.

These efforts to modernize universities through international cooperation are not only an academic and economic endeavor; they also have at least an ostensible political dimension. Higher education ranks at the top of the agenda for the reform of authoritarian regimes in the region. Organizations including the European Union, UNESCO, and the World Bank promote decentralized universities, open to the international environment and able to train graduates for the job market. Donors ask governments to integrate stakeholders in the decision-making process in order to encourage the participation of faculty members and ease the state's grip on universities. In Morocco and Egypt, commissions of experts have been created to build consensus on sensitive reform issues. While donors' motivation in promoting development of universities may be primarily to encourage economic development — and thereby discourage migration to Europe — the declared objectives are often democratization and improved governance.

In contrast to political and economic reforms, which sometimes are demanded by the international community, in educational reform it is often Arab leaders who are reaching out for foreign expertise to help them implement unpopular reforms and overcome domestic resistance. In 1995, King Hassan II of Morocco asked the World Bank to provide him with a report on social reform issues. He later used this report to circumvent the Parliament's position on free education and impose a decision for the eventual introduction of enrolment fees. Egyptian Minister of Higher Education Moufid Shehab organised a national conference to build support for a reform program to be financed by the World Bank. The program shifts the focus in higher education reform from expanding access towards improving quality.

While international organizations keep pressing for a comprehensive strategy to reform education, so far Egypt and Morocco are adopting selective approaches that add new layers to the educational system rather than overhauling it. In addition, reform efforts are taking place in authoritarian settings that create severe distortion in the transfer of foreign models. While Moroccan and Egyptian policymakers use cooperation with the Bank and other donors to break with certain old patterns such as free university education, other patterns, such as centralized university administration and lack of autonomy for universities, remain untouched. Some reform steps, such as depoliticizing the selection of university presidents, are implemented partially. Morocco 's new process for such selections introduces a measure of competition while leaving the ultimate choice to the king. Efforts to increase teaching quality favor those faculties (such as pharmacy, medicine, science, and engineering) that already suffer less than others from the structural crisis of overcrowding. Law and commerce faculties, which carry the major burden of students, so far have not been allocated resources in the reform process.

In addition to the selective approach to reforms, beneficiaries of reform and international cooperation also come from a select stratum of society. The current boom of private universities in Egypt, for example, creates opportunities for Egyptian philanthropists to invest in the business of education and come across as promoters of the “knowledge society” called for in UNDP's Arab Human Development Reports. And the results of such investments are only accessible to a small number of students who can afford private education. Elite politicians also benefit, as the countless committees, workshops, travel tours, and conferences organised by international organizations provide an important platform from which to present themselves as the true vanguard of reform.
Florian Kohstall is Research Fellow at the Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation Economiques, Juridiques et Sociales (CEDEJ) in Cairo.
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=19064&prog=zgp&proj=zme#kohstall
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Oldest modern child discovered in Morocco.

An eight-year-old child who died 160,000 years ago is thought to be the oldest human to develop in a modern way. A 160,000-year-old fossil found 60 miles west of Marrakech, Morocco, are believed to be the oldest human to have a long childhood. An international team of scientists, using synchrotron X-ray light, studied the teeth of an eight-year-old child that died 160,000 years ago and found microscopic growth lines within the tooth suggesting development like that of a modern human. The dental growth lines reveal development in a similar way to annual rings in trees and so reveal growth rates accurately after thousands of years.

Tooth growth in the Moroccan child was compared with other fossils and living humans to reveal the modern condition of prolonged dental development in childhood. The researchers stated: "These findings are not in contrast with our current wisdom that suggest that an extended period of development, and, by implication, childhood, may be linked to the origins of social, biological, and cultural changes needed to support dependent children with greater opportunities for early childhood learning."

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Laboratory of Geobiology, Biochronology and Human Paleontology in Poitiers , the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the UK's School of Dental Sciences in Newcastle, the Research School of Earth Sciences in Canberra and from the Department of Geology of the Mohammed V-Agdal University in Rabat in Morocco all took part in the research.
http://uktv.co.uk/index.cfm/uktv/History.news/aid/584259
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Women & Islam - A Moroccan woman’s view.
Fatima Amrani Zerrifi is an author and educator at the Sid Mohamed Ben Abdellah Fes University. In America recently the Fullbright scholar gave a lecture at the University of Central Florida where she opened her remarks by saying that the true interpretation of the Quran is not oppressive and instead lifts women up. She also claimed that the oppression of women in Islamic countries is caused by men misinterpreting the Quran and is not as widespread as portrayed by the mainstream media.

Amrani gave an hourlong presentation, sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program and Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, that snubbed theories that there is gender inequity in Islamic culture. She said Mohammed was one of the first feminists. “If I, as a Muslim, told you it (oppression) didn’t exist, I would be a liar, but it is a very small minority,” Amrani said. “But you never see a normal, civilized Muslim speaking his mind on TV.”

Amrani, who specializes in women and gender studies research, as well as women in Islam and gender mainstreaming, is a strong supporter of the Islamic Feminist movement. The feminist movement calls for educated women to question men to explain their interpretations of the Quran.
“If you are secluded for a long enough time, you become ignorant and dependent on the man,” Amrani said. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Amrani said, the enemy of the west became Islam and that’s where the accepted negativity originated. However, Amrani states that the majority of non-Muslim converts since Sept. 11, 2001 have been women.

Amrani asks, “If Islam is so negative, why is it the fastest-growing religion in the world?” She said there are 57 Muslim countries in the world and 1.5 billion Muslims who are as diverse as other groups. Oppression, she said is a result of the cultures of each country and not the Muslim faith.

The veil and body coverings, commonly found among Muslim women, are not required by the Islamic religion and are a Jewish tradition, Amrani said. Each Islamic country has its own veil of different patterns and fabrics. Amrani recalled one discussion with a young girl who explained her veil and clothing choice quite simply. “I want to be appreciated for who I am, not because I have a sexy body,” she said. In a religion whose name means “submission to God,” the commonly accepted oppression of women is being converted to a sense of female appreciation. According to Amrani, though, it is a slow process. “It is easy to change our habits, but it takes ages to change our mentality.”
http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=5320
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French-Moroccan MoU to create 500 jobs in IT sector.
Rabat, Mar. 13

Some five hundred jobs and an offshoring center are due to be created under the Memorandum of Understanding singed here on Monday between Morocco and the French group Capgemini. The group, which specializes in IT consulting is due to open a subsidiary in Morocco with the aim of developing IT and application remote maintenance projects, especially to the profit of the group’s clients in France.

The MoU was signed by Moroccan Minister of Industry, Trade and Economy Upgrading, Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister in Charge of Economic and General Affairs, Rachid Talbi El Alami, and Secretary General of Capgemini, Alain Donzeaud. The signing ceremony was chaired by Moroccan Premier, Driss Jettou. The 500 jobs are only a preliminary step, said Mezouar, bearing in mind the capacities of the group, likely to increase the rhythm of the creation of job opportunities in the field of Rightshore activities. He added that Morocco’s ultimate goal is to attract five world leaders in this domain.

For Donzeaud, Capgemini’s decision to reinforce its presence in Morocco stems from the importance of the projects launched in Morocco in this field, and the quality of the country’s human resources. Capegemini, one of the world leaders in IT services and facilities management, has achieved a turnover of Euro 7.7Bn in 2006.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/french-moroccan_mou/view
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Sex tourism on the rise in Morocco.
There are probably few countries that do not have a problem with paedophilia, pornography and sex tourism. Sadly it is a phenomenon that has been fueled by modern technology. The internet has become a pornography super-highway and also provides communication and file swapping between paedophiles. Air travel and tourism have increased around the globe and s to have the numbers of men traveling to destinations where they can find young prostitutes.

In Morocco, over the past decade there have been a few cases that hit the headlines. Several years ago police in Marrakech dismantled a child pornography network being run by French nationals and in the tourist city of Agadir (southern Morocco) last year a big sex scandal grabbed the attention of the national media. In that case a German national was sentenced to three year’ prison and a fine of MAD 5,000 for paedophilia, inciting a minor to vice, fitting out premises for this purpose and fostering sex tourism.

Earlier this year the Moroccan authorities arrested a network of about 18 Moroccans, among them a French of Moroccan descent, specialised in the production of pornographic films. After two months of investigations, aMarrakech court sentenced 13 people to a total of 30 years imprisonment, ranging from 6 months to 6 years in prison for each of the defendants.

The majority of them came from a popular neighborhood located at Sidi Youssef Ben Ali prefecture. Aged between 18 and 20, these impoverished Moroccans found themselves involved in a very dirty adventure, risking their reputation for a very insignificant sum of money and a promise of immigration to France. According to the Moroccan penal code, the individuals involved in a sex crime scandal, if convicted, risk one to 5 years imprisonment, with paying a fine ranging from MAD 5,000 to 1 million.

According to a statement in parliament by the Minister of Justice, sex tourism is on the rise. If his figures are accurate, then there is reason for grave concern. ’The number of the cases registered in Moroccan courts in 2005-2006, involving foreigners and Moroccans with minors, has increased by 26%,’ Mohamed Bouzoubaa said. However, he went on to point out that... ’Sexual perversion crimes are not exclusive to foreigners and must not be treated only by prison sentences but also by psychotherapy and pedagogical ways.’ It is to be hoped that the campaigns against sex tourism are effective, not only in Morocco, but in the countries of origin of the offenders. http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=4948
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Khmissa event pays tribute to Moroccan women.
Marrakech, Mar.12

The 2007 Khmissa event, which pays tribute to Moroccan women's achievements, was held here Saturday, to celebrate the International Women's Day. Awarded annually since 1998, the Khmissa event, a kind of "oscar ceremony," recognizes Moroccan women who have distinguished themselves in one of five areas: arts and culture, human rights, enterprise development, media and communications, and social and humanitarian action. During a ceremony held in what is known as the ochre city, to mark the tenth anniversary of the distinction, five women, among 25 nominees, were honored for their determination, creativity, achievements and devotion in five main areas.

In the category "Social and humanitarian action," the prize went to Fatima Elmaghnaoui, Chairman of "Annajda crisis center for women”, while Nouzha Mkinsi, CEO of "la Compagnie générale immobilière," grabbed the prize in "Enterprise development" category. As to Leila El Garaa, wheelchair champion and record woman in putting the shot, she received the Kmissa for her contribution to “Sports.” In the “Art and culture” and “Science” categories”, the Khmissa went, respectively, to the artist Hind Benjilany and to Oumama Aouad Lahrech, Chairman of the Institute of Hispanic and Lusophone Studies at Mohammed V University (University of Rabat). http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/culture/khmissa_event_pays_t/view
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Foraging | Fez, Morocco: Coin Berbère.
Arriving in Fez in the early 1600s, the Scottish traveler William Lithgow was astonished to find that Morocco ’s religious and cultural capital was also a shopper’s paradise. “The city aboundeth in all manner of provision fit for man or beast,” he observed. If the errant Scot explored the 1,200-year-old city today, he would still find the place full of the artisans’ stalls and workshops that have long made Fez the capital of North African craftsmanship. And at Coin Berbère, he might even unearth the same creations he glimpsed four centuries ago.

Owned by brothers Khalid and Mohamed Bouzidi-Idrissi, the quartet of small clustered stores is where a neo-sultan might furnish his palace, clothe his staff and carpet his floors. One chamber is full of huge 17th- and 18th-century wooden doors. These impressively carved portals now enjoy second lives as wall-mounted artwork. Another nook holds venerable Fez pottery, prized for its distinctive cobalt blue glaze. Earthenware jugs, brass kettles and silver jewelry burst from the corners.

Hanging on a wall, an exquisitely sewn 18th-century silk caftan highlights one of the store’s specialties: textiles. Even more astonishing is the Star of David stitched deftly into a button. It’s a quiet reminder that Jews historically formed a vibrant component of Moroccan society. (Most emigrated to France and Israel in the 20th century.) Upstairs, carpets testify to the artistry of another Moroccan minority, the Berbers, the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa.

Like everywhere in the country, prices are unmarked and negotiable. In general, Mohamed says, doors run from 5,000 to 10,000 dirhams ($585 to $1,175, at 8.70 Moroccan dirhams to $1), caftans from 3,000 to 8,000 dirhams, chests from 1,500 to 4,000 dirhams and embroidery from 10,000 to 12,000 dirhams. That will almost certainly include a glass of mint tea. “It’s one of the best antique and carpet shops in Fez,” said David Amster, a 12-year resident who has outfitted his guesthouse, Dar Bennis, with textiles and wooden furniture from the store. “The owners are friendly, honest and fair,” he said. “But of course you have to bargain a bit.”
Coin Berbère is at 67 Talaa Kebira in the Haddadine quarter of the Fez medina (212) 35-63-69-46.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/travel/18foraging.html?ex=1331870400&en=60bdafb5a18e4204&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
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Mythical Morocco.     
Matthew Link, OutTraveler,  15 March, 2007

"Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another." Those simple words forever altered the world's perception of what it means to travel. They were written in Morocco in 1948 by Paul Bowles, the bisexual author of the timeless novel The Sheltering Sky.

Of all the Western artists who have been irrefutably drawn to this numinous land residing beneath the tip of Spain, no other evoked with such precision its dreamlike mood, its "flaming sky in the west," and its "sharp mountains." In The Sheltering Sky, a world-weary American couple are fatefully drawn deeper and deeper into the great emptiness of the North African desert, and they are never the same again. Bowles, who lived in Morocco from the '50s until his death in 1999, is the touchstone to a generation of wide-eyed travelers, both gay and straight, whom he single-handedly opened up to Morocco, and who still approach this luminous country with a mix of awe, fear, and reverence.

My Moroccan guide, Driss, has a different take on the matter. We are speeding along in a minivan across the cold, rock-strewn landscape that dominates Morocco with a tangible pressure, the High Atlas Mountains of legend standing quietly to the side, watching us. Driss had written a college thesis on Bowles and Western attitudes towards Moroccan culture. "Bowles could be so negative in his portrayal of us, painting our culture as dark and violent and incomprehensible," he says. "With many tourists, the road is already paved. They think they have stock knowledge of this place, but they don't. Coming here corrects what is mistaken about Muslim culture, about Africa in general."

I watched the dry land pass by me, reminding me of Bowles's ominous description of the desert: "It was too powerful an entity not to lend itself to personification. The desert--its very silence was like tacit admission of the half-conscious presence it harbored." I thought about my own stock knowledge of the country, painted on the walls of my mind by legends like Bowles and William Burroughs. Of closeted men in the '50s obtaining handsome youths in an uncomplicated bisexual culture where few sexual lines are drawn. Of dark, hallucinatory episodes where Westerners grappled with existentialist demons in a land they didn't understand their mesmeric attraction to.

The Moroccan city of Tangier 50 years ago was the notorious International Zone, where laws and mores had no meaning, where the personages of Tennessee Williams, William Burroughs, Joe Orton, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles, and other queer literati washed ashore and fed their newly bohemian appetites for sex and drugs. But as this country at the beginning of the 21st century began to reveal itself to me, I saw a more intricate and complex pattern, as elaborate and adamant as the tile work that had withstood the centuries in the quiet chambers of the country's arched palaces.

Modern Morocco is a place with more paved roads than 10 of its African neighbors combined, where satellite dishes atop stucco roofs beam in global images from afar, where in a few short years all trade barriers with its giant brother Europe to the north will be abolished. It's a shining example amid troubled neighbors Algeria, mired in civil conflict, and Mauritania, one of the most destitute countries on earth. But Morocco is also a country where humans drenched in poverty drown while trying to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to prosperous Spain, where tired donkeys pull lemon carts across open sewers, where half of 30 million people cannot read or write.

Morocco is ruled in mythical fashion by a new modern king with a genial fist, and it's slowly becoming poised to lift itself up from its long history of conquest, like the Greek demigod Atlas when he held up the sky from here. The legendary city of Marrakech, nestled deep in the center of the country behind the Atlas Mountains, is, like most places once populated with hippies, now a magnet for those with money and taste.

During my first night in the city, I sauntered down the wide avenue from the art deco palace of La Mamounia (Morocco's most famous and lush hotel) past a 12th-century minaret and onward to the pulsing heart of the city, the Djeema el-Fna. Like something out of a dream, this huge open square rose toward me--the reverberations of ancient flutes, the tang of roasting meats, the clicking of horse-drawn carriages, the calls of fortune-tellers and touts. Throngs of robed men crowded around spectacles like friendly impromptu boxing matches, swirling dances, and gambling games. A mazelike labyrinth souk (an old marketplace of narrow alleys) beckoned beyond. Bowles once said that without the ageless Djeema el-Fna, Marrakech would just be another city.

The passage of time has no meaning in a place like this anyway--the overflowing energy of life is a constant, despite the ancient mud walls built around the city in an attempt to keep it hedged in. Morocco may be resiliently anchored in its ancient sands, but as Driss and I drove through the concrete outskirts of Marrakech later on, I spotted neon Pizza Hut signs, shiny Mercedes cars, and modern American-style supermarkets. Most of this new prosperity can be attributed to the young monarch King Mohammed VI, who ascended the throne in 1999. His smiling, Big Brother-like photograph greets one in every store and office in Morocco, and he carefully balances Muslim tradition with European capitalism.

The king is rumored to be homosexual--but since it is a crime to speak ill of him in any way, don't expect to hear much above whispers. But then, gay identity in most parts of the developing world is a luxurious aspiration. Most marriages in Morocco are still arranged, women are cloistered away, and men form strong emotional bonds with one another that can be easily mistranslated by foreigners.

Marrakech has surpassed the sordid port of Tangier as the contemporary gay capital of Morocco, thanks mainly to the influx of Westerners who open up riads (guesthouses) in the city. I could feel the homo vibe of the place when young men kept eyeing me in the square. I was uncertain if they were pickpockets, simply curious, or outright cruising. I had been warned that what could look like homosexual flirting could also be a setup for stealing money--and they were firmly tracing the steps of tourists, not locals. I decided to play it safe and dismiss their advances.

Sure, I had heard bona fide stories of male brothels existing into the '70s, but just a couple of months before my arrival a gay British tourist had been jailed for having sex with a local lad. And in 2004 a Moroccan newspaper reporter had been thrown in the slammer for implying that the minister of finance was having homosexual trysts at a seaside resort.

But where else besides public spaces would gay men meet? Morocco has no gay infrastructure of queer bars, restaurants, or hotels anywhere in the country. Furtive glances seem to line every café, every alleyway--leading to the mystery and sensuality that Bowles captured so well in his writings. Bowles may have had Moroccan lovers for most of his later life (and during his marriage to his lesbian wife, Jane), but for me, this would need to remain a romantic abstraction.

In Marrakech, I spoke with designer and architect Bill Willis, a well-known fixture of the local expatriate community since the '60s. "I stay away from the street boys in the square," he warns. "Anyway, I have two boyfriends here, and of course they are both happily married. Muslims don't have Christian guilt. There are no categories of gay and straight," he explains. "Marrakech is full of courtyards behind closed doors. And no one cares what goes on behind closed doors."

Willis's words echoed in my mind as Driss took me on tours of Marrakech's hidden architectural gems--most of which take the forms of ancient, elaborate courtyards and palaces once filled with sultans and concubines, carefully hidden from the world outside.

The Ali ben Youssef Medersa (a theological college from the 1500s) is a marvel of geometrical patterns and archways, as is the relatively modern (late 1800s) Palais de la Bahia, richly decorated with intricate ceilings and elaborately carved doors. Tourists may come to Morocco for its arid beaches, its deserts, its monuments, and its architecture, but invariably they are smitten by the nation's greatest allure--its pulsating, living culture. And Marrakech, once the government capital and now the indisputable tourist capital, has culture in spades.

You needn't go much farther than this city to get all of what Morocco promises. The place is distinctively Berber (an ancient, non-Arab race of people indigenous to Morocco). It's a culture known for its richly ornate details in its decorative arts. Morocco's history may be one of conquest by Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Spanish, and French (in that order), but the robust Berbers remained a thorn in each occupier's side.

You can spot the Berber pride in the how the young men strut about the streets, with a confident air that echoes centuries of staunchly defended free will. "At first, it seemed like the people were tough and it took me a long time to understand," Ania, a German riad owner in Marrakech told me. "But it in the end, this is an easygoing place where things are fluid and there is a solution to everything. The culture here is very deep."

I watched women in veils pass by our car as we left the pink stucco confines of Marrakech and passed through poorer villages straight into the harshness of the Atlas Mountains. We were headed to a little town at over 5,000 feet elevation called Imlil, about an hour and a half south of Marrakech.

A river valley with agricultural terraces lay below the town, and above us loomed Jebel Toubkal, North Africa's highest mountain at 13,167 feet--part of the thick wall Berbers call the "Mountain of mountains." Here my bags were packed on a mule, and Driss and I climbed up a steep rocky path to the Kasbah du Toubkal.

"You are going to fall in love with this place here," he prophesied. It was a centuries-old garrison-cum-luxury tourist lodge at the top of the world, framed by peaks heavy with a curtain of snow and ice. Martin Scorsese filmed Kundun here, to mimic the Himalayas of Tibet. Trekkers from around the world come here to hike the magical rocky folds.

After checking in I donned a hooded, robe-like jellaba and headed up into the valley on a trail behind the ancient kasbah. Old villages clung on to the steep slopes of the rough terrain on the sides of the valley. I soon passed a boy of about 12, also in a jellaba, who sang out to me, "Are you American?" I thought I was blending in, but perhaps not. "Yes." "Welcome to my country," he beamed. "Where are you from?" "I live in New York."
"Oh." His expression grew despondent. "That Osama bin Laden, he is a bad man." I looked up at him. "Yes." "We are happy you are here." He burst into a huge smile as he turned away, and the deep sunset followed his disappearing shape down the mountain.

I reached the top of the trail and gazed down the valley as it darkened, home fires beginning to sparkle down its length. The desert stars became flush with the night; you could see so far into the sky, you felt like you were looking back on yourself. I thought about the men and children in the villages and how they abided despite the crushing snow and statistics against their survival. I thought about my own aunt who passed away years ago, who loved The Sheltering Sky but never had a chance to see this place, and I grew heavy with the weight of opportunities forever lost.

I thought about how many people may never see this place, and although it was sad, there was some comfort in knowing it would always exist here anyway in its own content vacuum. And I thought about Bowles, the true and quintessential traveler, and how he loved a land he would happily never fully understand.
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