Category: Americas and Eurasia and Africa

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#12 in series: mighty walls “1”)

Published December 1, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#12 in series: mighty walls “1”)

If you are partial to “historic”, imposing, dramatically situated fortresses, you will find Morocco and Spain very rewarding destinations.

Pictured above, bathed in autumnal late afternoon light, is part of the Alcazabar – the Alhambra’s fortress, which is also its oldest (surviving) section.

The Alcazabar was built by Granada’s Moorish rulers, nearly 800 years ago.

After the Reconquista of 1492 further modifications and additions were made by the “restored” Spanish Catholic regime.

Since 1975 – and the end of Franco’s Catholic-accented dictatorship – global tourism has “conquered” Granada.

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Morocco & Andalucia (#11 in series: Sahara’s edge)

Published November 29, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia (#11 in series: Sahara’s edge)

Southeastern Morocco affords tourists their easiest and safest access to the world’s largest desert.

For most of them, the Sahara’s dunes provide a capital “e” “Exotic” experience.

Saharan tourism generates a lot of revenue and provides employment to many Moroccans.

It also creates a whole lot of unsolved “management issues” and environmental problems.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#10 in series: much older than “the oldest”)

Published November 28, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#10 in series: much older than “the oldest”)

I took this post’s photo at 3.16 pm on 14 October 2025.

My vantage point was a ridge-top in Morocco’s Anti-Atlas – the southwestern part of the Atlas Mountains.

This region’s climate is very harsh, but the pictured valley has “traditionally” received enough water to support agriculture, which is why there is so much terracing.

Over the last several years, however, drought has rendered the terraces (temporarily?) useless.

Immediately behind me was a strategically-located, solid and venerable structure.

Effectively, it used to be a bank – a bank which was fully operational several centuries before the establishment of certain Italian and German financial institutions which are routinely described as “the world’s oldest banks”.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#9 in series: enduring, fighting, flux)

Published November 26, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#9 in series: enduring, fighting, flux)

Australia is home to an indigenous culture which is almost unrivalled in its longevity.

(most Australians ignore – or are simply ignorant of – the existence of the San. Southern Africa’s so-called “Bushmen” also have a continuous culture which predates every “Western” one by tens of thousands of years. It is entirely possible that San culture may be even older than is Aboriginal Australia’s)

In terms of imposing buildings and “historic” streetscapes, however, Australia is a very young country.

Not so Morocco and Spain!

This post’s photo encompasses more than two thousand years’ worth of construction, conflict, destruction and renovation.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (altitude & climate “2”)

Published November 24, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (altitude & climate “2”)

The pictured location is not in the Atlas Mountains, but is in Morocco.

Morocco’s northernmost mountain range rises to 2,456 metres above sea level – a deal more modest than the Atlas, but still 228 metres higher than the Australian continent’s high point.

The Rif Mountains’ western end is very much wetter than is any other part of Morocco.

In most winters the Rif’s upper slopes are probably the nation’s snowiest; at any time of year they offer dramatic vistas and some beautiful (albeit threatened/remnant) forests.

The Rif is “very Moroccan”, but its wetter, higher parts do not at all resemble most visitors’ preconceptions of what Morocco “should” look like.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (# 7 in series: altitude & climate “1”)

Published November 23, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (# 7 in series: altitude & climate “1”)

I took the photo in Granada, Andalucia, on the afternoon of 03 November 2025.

My vantage point was near the “main gate” to Spain’s #1 tourist attraction.

The urban ground on which I stood was probably just a little higher than is the highest point in “The Adelaide Hills”; Mt Lofty Summit is 710 metres above sea level.

As a child, I regarded Mt Lofty as a “mountain”; for my first seven years it was the loftiest peak I had ever seen…or reached.

Pictured with a recent “dusting” of autumn snow, the high point in this post’s photo is Veleta.

Veleta’s summit is a very few metres shy of 3,400 metres; it is the Sierra Nevada’s second highest peak, and the entire Iberian Peninsula’s third highest point.

Spain is a much “higher” nation than most Australians imagine!

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#6 in series: delicious pig)

Published November 20, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#6 in series: delicious pig)

This post’s “characteristic” is not shared with Morocco.

More than two thousand years ago Roman invaders enthused about the particular excellence of Iberian pork, most especially that from black pigs which ate acorns.

In 2025 Spain is almost certainly the world’s most “porkophiliac” nation.

For visitors who like to eat pigs, Spain is an unbeatable destination.

Q: What do the finest air-cured hams I have ever eaten, the best woodfired pork I have ever tasted and the most delicious slow-cooked pork dish I have ever encountered have in common?

A: All were eaten in Spain.

Sheer excellence is not the only reason that – via la Reconquista – pork came to reign in the cuisine of Spain.

The Spanish Inquisition also played a key role!

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#5 in series: delicious fish & shellfish)

Published November 19, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#5 in series: delicious fish & shellfish)

Our October/November 2025 travels confirmed that something we already “knew” – from previous experience – still held true: Spain is a wonderful destination if you love to eat fresh seafood.

We also learned something we did not already know: that Morocco is similarly wonderful in this respect.

Both nations’ “catch” is richly varied, and both lands have many citizens who really know how to “plate it up”.

In Morocco that is most especially true of places on or near to its western (Atlantic) shores.

Such a place is the historic, long-fortified, port city of Essaouira.

I took this post’s photo there on 17 October, shortly after a teeth-squeakingly-fresh seafood lunch.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#4 in series: inward-looking “2” – Fez)

Published November 17, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#4 in series: inward-looking “2” – Fez)

The Arabic word which is transliterated into English as “riad” or “riyadh” originally signified a garden or courtyard/ enclosed garden/patio of the formal, Islamic, so-called “paradise garden” type.

In current common usage “riad” (in Morocco, especially) is the word for a house/guesthouse/building in which its heart is such an open-aired but otherwise fully enclosed patio/courtyard.

Most such riads were originally the houses of wealthy merchants, built within the walls of a city’s “medina” – what is now its “old”/“walled” city.

The pictured example is surely one of the most exquisite.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#3 in series: inward-looking “1” – Granada)

Published November 16, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#3 in series: inward-looking “1” – Granada)

In much of Spain and Morocco it is very hot for a deal of the year.

This, in large part, explains why many wealthy persons’ houses traditionally had few external windows, very small ones, or absolutely none.

Many such houses had very thick walls, with “surprisingly” plain exterior surfaces.

These houses look in, not out.

Their rooms face a well-shaded courtyard.

Invariably, that courtyard has plants and a water feature; usually, it includes various, oft-beautiful decorative elements. The decorations may be very spare, or highly intricate/elaborate.

The pictured example is in Granada, Spain,

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