My journey from Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport into Marrakech began after a smooth immigration clearance, baggage retrieval and customs inspection. I must say I was impressed by the gregarious nature of ordinary Moroccans, but the officials manning immigration and customs were quite surly...
The roads leading out of the Casablanca Airport were lined up with Moroccan flags - the red background on the Moroccan flag represents hardiness, bravery, strength and valour, while the green pentagram comes from the seal of Solomon representing love, joy, wisdom, peace and hope...
And I got on to Highway A7 that would brought me to Marrakech...
The distance of 200 kilometres took about 2 hours and 15 minutes...
And I was enjoying the Moroccan countryside along the highway...
Sheep grazing by the side of the highway...
The stark rugged landscape was interspersed by groves of trees...
My driver, Hamid, got really excited when I told him I am from Mumbai. And he had all the lovely tales about which all Bollywood films he had seen. His favourites were Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha!
The landscape was indeed quite inviting...
And in the yesteryears, these hills were home to the original natives - the Berbers. After them came in the Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs and then the colonial Europeans...
And quite a few of them stayed back, assimilating themselves into local societies, which is why Moroccans today appear as a diverse race - they are a diverse group - some look like blondes, some are distinctly of mixed-race origin...
And the landscape changes every few kilometres and so do the colours...
An agricultural field...
Foothills of the Atlas mountains...
As I enter Marrakech, I realise this is indeed a very beautiful country or as the Berbers would say ⵉⴼⵓⵍⴽⵉ ⴰⵎⴻⵔⵔⵓⴽ - Ifulki Amerruk, or Beautiful Morocco...
And we've entered Marrakech...
The main railway station...
The Royal Theatre...
And now I am looking forward to a few hours of rest and relaxation till work starts tomorrow morning. This is quite a hectic trip and I am not sure I will have much time to see Marrakech. But the lively conversation with my driver made me instantly love Morocco...
And then I am told a wonderful Berber saying by my driver "The land where the stones know you is worth more than the land where the people know you."
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