Things to Do in Chellah Necropolis

Walk the Roman streets

The cardo maximus still cuts straight. Your soles slide on basalt pavers polished by 2,000 years of sandals. Spot the marble sewer covers, round discs slit for greywater, and sniff the wild mint that now perfumes vanished baths.

Stork-watching by the minaret

The hacked-off Hassan minaret hosts Morocco's biggest stork city. From April the chicks honk like dented trumpets while parents ferry wriggling eels in pink pincers. The updraft smells of fish and warm feathers, weirdly comforting above the terracotta rubble.

Sacred pool of the eels

Women still pitch hard-boiled eggs into the murky pool behind the zaouia for resident eels, black ribbons that locals swear boost fertility. Sulphur drifts skyward. Dragonflies stitch the air; Roman drain holes still gulp water after eighteen centuries.

Marinid tombs at sunset

Scramble the grassy crown of the 14th-century necropolis. Stone holds the day's heat; Atlantic breeze tastes of salt and Oudayas grill smoke. Rabat's Hassan Tower lines up between broken teeth of merlons while swifts scissor orange light.

Garden of medicinal herbs

Inside the Islamic enclosure a pocket garden grows rue, absinthe, rosemary - pharmacy herbs once dispensed by zawiya healers. Crush silvery leaves: camphor, pine, medicine. Butterflies land on kufic-carved limestone. Quiet corner.

Kasbah of the Udayas: white lanes, blue shutters, sea glitter, morning coffee aroma on the air.

Agdal's jacaranda tunnels hide embassies. Rooftop bars pour local Cabernet under spreading trees.

Hassan quarter for budget digs near the station and 3-am street-corner msemen

Souissi for villa-style hotels set in pine woods - good if you have wheels

Medina riads lurk behind honey-stone walls. Nights stay silent except for the mosque loudspeaker.

Cheap hostels cluster along Avenue Mohammed V; trams and late juice stalls wait outside.