Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1911 — Famous Old Morocco City [ARTICLE]

Famous Old Morocco City

ifrhU ijjf > r -y, ■.«. * 1 Wh in Its Day One of th« World Capitals of Islam and Still Interesting to Europeans. Morocco City, the capital of the southern half of the Moroccan kingdom, Is a far more interesting city than Fez. says the New York Han. Architecturally its monuments, including the famous Kutubla tower, the counterpart of (he Gerald* in Seville.* the famous mosque of Muley Abdallah and a hundred other ruined or semi-

ruined edifices surviving from the days when the city had 700,000 inhabitants and was one of the world capitals of Islam, are the most considerable and magnificent in Morocco. Equally beautiful Is the site of this city In the upper valley of the Tenestft river, surrounded In a half circle py the great wall of the grand Atlas mQuntalns, whose' snow-clad peaks ire seen beyond a foreground of large farms and fertile field*. A city far leas given

over to war, with a population less ferocious, less fanatical than that of Fez or Meklnez, Morocco City haa been much more frequ&tly visited by Europeans .than its northern rivals. Geographically, Morocco City is the real gateway to the Sahara. By the famous Glawi pass one road climbs over the Atlas to Thfllet, and the caravan route continues to Timbuktu. A second road descends to the Drma crossing the Atlas chain, while a third leads to Tarudant and the Sua country. Close communication with the south has left its mark upon the people, who are (larger and show more

patently the infusion of African blood than the Berbers and Arabs .of the north.