Meknès is, in the proper sense, a folly-town: the projection of one man over sixty square kilometres and fifty-five years of uninterrupted building.

Moulay Ismaïl, second sultan of the Alawite dynasty (reign 1672-1727), chose Meknès — then a small Berber town on the foothills of the Middle Atlas — to make it his capital. For fifty-five years he mobilised up to 30,000 permanent workers (Christian slaves captured at sea, Berber prisoners, free workers) to build the ramparts (40 km), the palaces (24 according to Pidou de Saint-Olon), the stables (a capacity of 12,000 horses), the granaries (the great Heri Mansour could store grain for twenty years), a reorganised medina and a mellah. The town was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.

I. Bab Mansour, the gate that wished to make the earth tremble

The Bab Mansour el-Aleuj gate — completed in 1732, five years after Ismaïl's death — is considered the finest monumental gate of the Muslim world. Its name means "gate of Mansour the renegade": Mansour Laalej ("the renegade") was a converted Christian who became the sultan's architect. The gate combines a round arch, polychrome zellige tympana, marble columns recovered from the Roman site of Volubilis (30 km away), monumental inscriptions in Kufic and Thuluth.

The effect Ismaïl sought was political: to impress the European ambassadors — Louis XIV sent an embassy in 1682, England in 1721 — and to signify the power of the young Alawite empire. The Volubilis columns are not a detail: by reusing the vestiges of Roman Volubilis (Pliny's "Tingitana"), Ismaïl explicitly placed himself in an imperial succession that goes beyond Islam. The gate is, beyond its beauty, a geopolitical manifesto in stone.

II. Damascening, the secret of Meknès

Damascening — the inlay of gold, silver or copper wire in a black metal (generally oxidised steel or patinated bronze) — is one of the oldest arts of metal. It is attested in the Middle East since the 3rd millennium BCE, and spread via Persia, Damascus (whence its name), then Moorish Spain and Morocco. In Meknès, damascening became a regional speciality from the 18th century, probably imported by the Andalusian craftsmen settled in the town under Moulay Ismaïl.

The technique consists in engraving, with a hardened-iron burin, fine grooves in the support plate, then inserting the precious metal wire with a hammer. The motifs — Kufic calligraphy, floral scrolls, geometric arabesques — can count several hundred metres of wire for an average piece. Meknès remains the only Moroccan centre to practise damascening at an industrial level; the National Crafts School (ENA) has trained craftsmen in this technique there since 1950.

III. Granaries, stables, cisterns

The Heri Souani — also called the Granaries and Stables of Moulay Ismaïl — are one of the most spectacular works of art of the reign. The sultan wanted to be able to feed his army and his horses through a twenty-year siege. The complex covers several hectares: a granary with massive vaults (walls up to 4 metres thick to keep the cool), underground cisterns linked to an aqueduct from the Zerhoun mountains, stables able to shelter 12,000 horses simultaneously, with their marble mangers and their hydraulic drainage systems.

A large part of the complex collapsed during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, but what survives is enough to grasp the scale. Beside it, the agdal basin (380 m long, 150 m wide, 2 m deep) served at once as a water reserve, a pleasure basin, and — according to the chroniclers — an arena for cavalry demonstrations. Meknès, even more than Marrakech or Rabat, illustrates the Alawite imperial logic: excess of the project, total mobilisation of the workforce, a vocabulary of architecture all its own.

IV. The olive market and the zaouia of Ismaïl

Meknès is today the Moroccan capital of the table olive. The Meknès-Tafilalet region produces nearly 25% of the national table-olive production. The olive souk of Meknès, held on el-Hedim square, is one of the most picturesque in the kingdom: fermented black olives, salt-cracked green olives, violet olives brined with preserved lemon — each merchant has his recipe, handed down over several generations.

The mausoleum of Moulay Ismaïl — restored in 2017 — remains one of the rare Moroccan royal mausoleums accessible to non-Muslims (along with that of Mohammed V in Rabat). The visitor discovers the tomb of the builder-sultan in a hall adorned with zellige, carved wood and Carrara marble — fragments here too recovered from Roman sites.

V. To see, to learn

Essential places to understand the crafts of Meknès.

• Bab Mansour El-Hedim square — Monumental gate 1732, the finest of the Muslim world.
• Heri Souani South-east — Granaries, imperial stables, agdal basin.
• Mausoleum of Moulay Ismaïl Imperial medina — Restored 2017, accessible to non-Muslims.
• Medersa Bou Inania Medina — 1336, neighbour of the homonymous Fassi medersa.
• El-Hedim Square Town heart — Olive souk, henna market, popular theatre.
• Volubilis 30 km north — Roman capital, UNESCO 1997.

VI. Sources

1. UNESCO WHC — Historic town of Meknès — Inscription 1996. — link.
2. National Crafts School of Meknès — Damascening, training since 1950..
3. Maison de l'Artisan — Fès-Meknès / Metalwork branch. — link.
4. UNESCO WHC — Archaeological site of Volubilis — Inscription 1997. — link.