MOROCCO SOUKS: PART 2

In the United States, we are used to large stores. We enter through a main door, and wander through aisles, browsing a variety of items for sale. Souks are very different from our shops. They’re very small, possibly the size of a walk-in closet. Perhaps the best image is to imagine think of the craft booths at a fair or festival. Imagine something that size bordered at the back by walls and roofed over. The buyers walk down the narrow streets, with these shops on both sides.

Behind and above these shops are residences. Just as in the “old days” a grocer might live above his store, the shopkeepers in the souks lived near their shops. The shop owners Jade talked with when in 1920 in her third adventure, The Serpent’s Daughter, were descendents of the original shop owners. The shop, the residence, the craft, all were handed down from father to son for generations.

Hence, a leatherworker’s father and grandfather were leatherworkers just as a silversmith learned his art and trade from his ancestors. In the modern photographs (taken during my own 2006 tour) for today’s blog, you see a sampling of some of the variety seen in the souks.

As you tour the photos today and next week, try to imagine the aroma of spices, the scent of leather, the squelch of something undefined under your shoe, and the combined voices of shoppers haggling with the shopkeepers.

(Photo 1) Barrels with mounds of spices for cooking to the left and clothing to the right.

(Photo 2) Good luck charms for sale:
Hand of Fatima

(Photo 3) Olives in varying stages of ripeness for sale. Green, then yellow, red, and finally black. Note lemons wedged in between the olives.

NEXT WEEK: PICTURAL TOUR OF SOME SHOPS CONTINUED