Tangier to Marrakech Great Continental Railway Journeys

I'm embarking on a new railway adventure that will take me

beyond the edge of Europe.

I'll be using this,

my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, dated 1913,

which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel

for the British tourist.

It told travellers where to go,

what to see and how to navigate the thousands of miles of tracks

to cross the Continent.

Now, a century later,

I'm using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy,

but also of high tension.

I want to rediscover that lost Europe that in 1913 couldn't know

that its way of life would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.

I'm setting off from Tarifa in southern Spain

for a country just nine miles to the south.

SHIP'S HORN BLASTS

A land which at the time of my guide

was jealously coveted by rival European powers.

I'm Morocco-bound and excited to be so.

At the beginning of the 20th century,

Morocco's riches set France and Germany at each other's throats,

scrambling for control.

The Bradshaw traveller had to be intrepid indeed

and it was a matter of sheer chance

that the First World War did not break out here.

The tourists across this narrow stretch of water left elegant Europe

for edgy Africa, departed Christendom for Islam,

repulsed or magnetised by the exoticism.

My journey begins on the north-western tip of Morocco,

where I enter Africa through its gateway, Tangier.

I step back in time in the medieval city of Fez before fast forwarding

into the modern era in the political capital of Rabat.

At the port of Casablanca,

I'll visit one of Morocco's most impressive monuments.

I'll finish in exotic Marrakech.

Along the way, I take in the sights, the sounds...

RAPID DRUMMING, WHISTLES BLOW

..and the tastes of this rich culture.

So many flavours. They explode on the tongue.

I discover that since the time of my guidebook,

some parts of Moroccan life have barely changed.

The only transportation means is the donkey,

so when you hear the word "balak", step aside and let the donkeys pass.

MAN CALLS OUT IN ARABIC

I learn how the Sultan of Morocco

came to hand over his country to the French.

France had promised him many things.

If he signs the Treaty of Fez, he would get some autonomy,

which never happened.

They would rule over Morocco as they wished.

And I marvel at this ancient country's

remarkable modern achievements.

This is not only a building of worship,

but a celebration of what the Moroccan people can achieve.

TRAIN HORN HOOTS

It's a short hop from Spain to Morocco,

but for the 1913 Bradshaw traveller,

this journey was a leap into the unknown.

Between Spain and Morocco, the clocks go back one hour,

as I go back about a century.

I'm arriving in Tangier,

a port at the threshold between Europe and Africa.

Control over this highly strategic location has long been prized

and never more so than at the time of my guidebook.

The guidebook tells me that Tangier is "very picturesquely situated on

"rising ground at the west side of the Bay of Tangier."

And from its heights it looks down both on the Atlantic Ocean

and on that narrow stretch of the Mediterranean

that separates Africa from Europe. The British,

who had their fortress on the other side of the strait in Gibraltar,

were insistent that Tangier should remain international,

rather than falling into the hands of the French, or the Spanish,

or, heaven forbid, the Germans.

Morocco is home to a mix of indigenous Berber,

Arab and black African peoples.

The diversity of their cultures fascinates visitors today

as it did 100 years ago.

As I walk around Tangier,

I'm struck by how Europe has influenced its architecture.

Here, just outside the medina, in the so-called Grand Socco,

you get a really good feeling for Tangier.

Here is a minaret, predictably enough,

but less expected, to its left,

the tower of an English church.

Here is a French-built cinema,

presently showing a German film festival,

and close by is a Spanish school.

Inside the medina,

or the old town,

I've arranged to meet my guide Aziz Begdouri,

to find out more about Tangier and its people.

-Hello, Aziz.

-Hello, Michael.

-Come upstairs.

-Thank you.

Aziz, tell me,

why are you so enthusiastic about your city of Tangier?

Tangier is a melting pot,

Tangier is a city of multi-cultures and multi-religions.

We have all the nationalities here, everyone accepts everyone else.

The location of Tangier is spectacular.

We have two coastlines, we have the Med and we have the Atlantic.

This city, with all the virtues that you've just listed,

has attracted millions of foreigners over the centuries.

-Correct.

-In 1913, what would life have been like in this city?

In 1913, it was already becoming an international city.

We had the Muslims and we had the Jews and we had the Christians.

Many European powers already had a presence here

and we see that all the buildings built in the late 19th century,

beginning of the 20th century, all have European influences.

Big windows and balconies.

So the medina of Tangier is the only medina in Morocco

that has European influence.

At the beginning of the 20th century,

Tangier becomes a flash point between the great powers.

The First World War could have begun here.

-What happened?

-On 31st March 1905,

Kaiser Wilhelm II came to visit Tangier

in order to support Moroccan sovereignty.

What was the reaction of the local people?

The local people welcomed him,

because he's defending their right to be independent.

What was the reaction of the French?

They were very upset and very unhappy with the visit.

In 1904,

France had taken control of parts of Morocco

from the young and inexperienced sultan, al-Aziz,

much to the fury of Germany,

who wanted the territory for herself.

The clash focused the world's attention

on this North African nation.

France crucially won the backing of its allies Britain and Russia.

Tensions between them and Germany deepened and in 1911 boiled over

for a second time in Morocco.

When French troops were sent to quell a rebellion,

Germany responded by sending a gunboat to Agadir.

Britain, again, backed the French in Morocco

and the Germans were placated with other territories in Africa.

But these two crises further estranged Britain and France

from Germany in the uneasy decade before the First World War.

Inside the walls of the medina is a maze of alleys and backstreets.

I'm curious to find out what's behind

some of the city's secret doorways.

This is such a gloriously unexpected discovery.

A synagogue. And so beautiful, so large and wonderfully restored.

In fact, there were Jews in Morocco in the pre-Christian era

and then in 1492, when they were expelled from Spain,

another wave came here and in the centuries that followed,

when apparently they were no longer welcome

to live side-by-side with Catholics,

they existed in harmony with Muslims here in Morocco.

The majority of Morocco's quarter of a million Jews emigrated

after the Second World War, many to the newly-created state of Israel,

leaving about 4,000 today.

NORTH AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

As I walk through Tangier's tangle of streets,

some Moroccan folky sounds draw me into a cafe.

THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Merci, messieurs! Formidable, merci!

Well, with the violin and very special local designs of drum

and lute and flute, this music, I believe, has influences of Berber,

of Islamic, even of Andalusia, from southern Spain.

The music is itself a melting pot

and it produces this fantastic sound.

-Merci. ALL:

-Merci.

I'm leaving the city by way of Tanger Ville Station

to embark on the first leg of my Moroccan railway adventure.

At last, it's time for a train.

And what a lovely station!

Taking to the tracks, I'm aware that in 1913,

Morocco was just at the dawn of its railway age.

From his camel or donkey,

the Bradshaw traveller would have seen the first train lines

under construction as the French began to build the network

which today extends to 2,000 kilometres of track.

As I pull out of Tangier Station,

I notice some state-of-the-art rolling stock

that suggests that Morocco's railway operator, ONCF,

is embarking on some railway modernisation.

Moroccan railways have taken delivery

of a shiny new set of double-deck trains

and alongside this track,

they are building a new railway between Tangier and Casablanca

and, when it's finished, it will cut the journey time

from approaching five hours to not much more than two.

The first phase is substantially completed, and when it's open,

Morocco will join that elite club of high-speed rail nations.

I'm alighting at Asilah,

40km south of Tangier, to meet engineer Farouk,

who is overseeing construction of a vast viaduct

known as the El Hachef.

Farouk, I imagine Morocco is rather proud

about entering the high-speed rail age,

and you must be pretty proud working on the project.

Exactly. I'm very proud to be a part of this project.

When we finish it, it will be the beginning of a new era.

At Tangier, I saw that you've taken delivery of high-speed trains.

What speed are they capable of?

They can reach a speed of up to 360km.

That's broadly comparable to the systems in Spain and France.

It's totally the same system.

The new high-speed line will cover the first 200km

of the 350km route between Tangier and Casablanca,

as far as Kenitra.

It is projected to cost around £3 billion

and is a joint venture between Morocco and France.

The project has thrown up some tough engineering challenges,

which have been met with ingenious solutions.

Why do you need such an enormous viaduct

across what is quite a shallow valley?

We have faced up to several technical problems here.

A lot of problems about settlement.

So the earth is sinking down?

-Exactly.

-You don't want a wobbly high-speed line, do you?

Exactly. So we decided to build this bridge at 3.5km

to avoid these problems in the future.

It's the longest bridge in Africa.

This valley floods,

so huge amounts of earth are needed to fill in the waterlogged

and unstable land.

I've offered to lend a hand with some of the groundworks.

OK, let's open it up.

And let's raise it.

Former politician dishes the dirt!

Having made my contribution to Morocco's great railway future,

I'm making my way back to Asilah.

With its charmingly relaxed feel,

I'm confident that it will offer me a peaceful night.

This morning, I am returning to Asilah Station

to continue my journey.

I'm travelling four hours south-east into the interior

and to the city of Fez.

I'm passing through scenery that I had not anticipated.

It's springtime in Morocco and it's surprisingly green.

The countryside is often gentle and rolling and it could be,

I don't know, north Italy, or something like that.

But then you will see a goatherd, a hooded figure with a long coat.

Looks like a scene out of the Bible.

Then you're jolted back to the reality that you're in North Africa.

The years immediately preceding the publication of my guidebook

were pivotal in the history of Morocco.

Sultan al-Aziz, who'd let the French gain a foothold in his country,

was overthrown by his brother, Sultan al-Hafid.

But he too struggled to curb

France's growing territorial ambitions.

I'm meeting historian Hiyam El Khalili

to find out how most of Morocco

eventually fell to the French.

-Hello.

-Hello!

I'm Michael, thanks for joining me.

Have a seat.

Hiyam, we're on this long train ride to Fez,

a city I think of as a beautifully preserved medieval city,

but around the time that my guidebook was published,

I believe there were important political

and even violent developments in Fez.

In 1912, there were riots and rebellions that erupted in Fez,

because Moroccan nationals were very angry and did not want to fall under

the French protectorate.

Morocco has not fallen under any foreign rule

since the Umayyad dynasty in the eighth century.

We've never been under the Ottoman Empire's rule.

So we have a very long history of self-determination,

for about 12 centuries.

So this obviously did upset most Moroccans at the time.

The tribes of the Middle Atlas descended on Fez,

laying siege to the city.

With disorder and violence swirling around his palace,

the desperate sultan turned to the French for help,

a request that France exploited.

Now, why did the sultan feel

that had to sign a treaty with the French?

There were not many options.

France had promised him many things.

If he signs the treaty of Fez,

he would get some autonomy under the French Protectorate,

which never happened.

Basically, the Treaty of Fez stated

that the sultan would remain a sultan

and have religious power,

but everything else just gave interest to France instead.

They would be able to deploy their army all over the nation

and they would put Frenchmen in the Makhzen, or the government,

and they would rule over Morocco as they wished.

Having handed his country to the French,

the sultan was forced into retirement.

Morocco was to remain a French protectorate for the next 44 years.

I'm alighting at Fez's central station.

Since I've been in Morocco,

I've been immensely impressed with the railway stations,

which are very modern,

but which draw on traditional architectural motifs.

This one at Fez has to be the greatest so far.

Two wonderful, huge horseshoe arches.

I'm passing under this fretwork chandelier and the carved ceiling.

And everywhere, the colourful tiles.

Fez, says Bradshaw's,

is enclosed in a double line of ruinous walls

with a series of outlying detached forts.

It swarms with dervishes, extraordinary mendicants

and snake charmers.

This ancient city was established in the eighth century

by an Arab descendant of the Prophet Muhammad,

who pursued the Islamisation of Morocco.

Fez is home to the world's oldest university,

founded in the ninth century,

and has become one of the great centres

of Arabic and Islamic learning.

I'm meeting Professor Moha Ennaji.

Moha, what does this wonderful city mean to a Moroccan

and to Moroccan history?

Well, to Moroccans, this is a very historical city.

This is the spiritual capital and the cultural capital of Morocco

and it is more than 12 centuries old.

Any visitor to Fez is of course enormously impressed

by how well preserved it is.

How has it kept modern forces, as it were, at bay?

Yeah, well, it has been kept preserved, of course, by the French,

especially General Lyautey,

who was like the governor of Morocco

when Morocco was under the French protectorate from 1912 to 1956.

Lyautey insisted that the French should not touch the monuments

and respect the culture and the religion

and the people's traditions.

And after the independence,

the government did everything they could to preserve this city

from decay, because it is a functioning medina.

I'm here for a very short while.

What is your tip for the visitor to Fez?

Well, I have two tips for you.

First of all, try the Fez cuisine, and also beware of the donkeys,

because the only transportation means is a donkey,

so when you hear the word "balak", step aside and let the donkeys pass!

This is the borderline between the 21st century and a medieval city,

preserved in aspic.

I find myself in a maze of narrow streets,

some little more than two feet wide.

Balak, balak!

One word I won't forget from Moroccan -

"Balak, balak!"

"Jump out the way!"

Until the late 19th century,

Fez was the only place in the world where its eponymous hat was made

and everywhere I look, traditional craftsmen are plying their trades.

What is so amazing about this place is the number of little businesses,

the number of little shops.

They are literally tiny.

They have minute premises and yet everything they have

is beautifully displayed. I mean, look at these dried fruits.

Isn't that just the most perfect thing?

-Hello, monsieur.

-Hello, bonjour.

-C'est tres beau.

-Merci bien.

Est-ce que vous...

Have you got dried figs?

Could I have five, please?

Merci, monsieur. Ca fait combien?

Five dinar.

Merci, monsieur. C'est gentil.

Dried fruits are typically Moroccan,

as are the aromatic spices on sale throughout the souks.

I'm keen to learn about this country's most famous dish, tagine,

and I've arranged to meet Moroccan chef Souad

at her restaurant in the medina.

-Ca va?

-Hi, hello.

-I'm Michael.

-Nice to meet you, so welcome.

Does this sort of cuisine come from the Berbers,

does it come from Spain?

So, the using a clay pot, it's coming from south of Morocco.

-South of Morocco.

-Yeah, very special.

And we call it soussi tagine.

It strikes me in Morocco how often you use sweet things.

Where does that sweet cuisine come from?

OK, all the sweetness is coming from Jewish culture.

And they are so crazy about combinations,

about sweet and savoury.

So, if that's the Jewish cuisine,

what would the Berber cuisine be like?

OK, Berber, it's such flavour, like, big cumin, big turmeric,

big ginger. We are so crazy about savoury things, you know?

OK, what are we making today?

Lamb tagine with prune.

-You start.

-OK, you start!

Are you here for cooking? Pepper.

Then we go for ginger, so fragrant.

Lovely smell, the ginger.

We go for the turmeric.

-How much?

-More, keep going.

Look at those lovely colours!

I like it. We can use now salt.

Garlic.

-Mmm.

-You like garlic?

-Oh, I love garlic.

Coriander.

Big handful of parsley.

Oh, look at those greens now.

-So amazing.

-Our painting is taking shape.

So, go for olive oil, big circle.

-Fantastic.

-Water.

-Stirring it up.

-Yeah.

-Oh.

-So many flavours.

They explode on the tongue.

The lamb is looking wonderful.

The meat is rubbed in the spice mix and added to the tagine.

That's it.

So now we can close our pot.

We don't leave the steam to waste.

We keep in steam to cook our lamb to be tender, OK?

After two hours on the hob, the tagine is ready

and we choose to eat it on Souad's rooftop terrace

overlooking the city.

The moment we have been waiting for.

In a Morocco, you'd eat this with your hands?

Yeah, we eat by hand.

-Mmm. So spicy, and yet so sweet.

-Sweet.

Mmm! Delicious.

Hello.

Back out in the medina, it's time to find my bed for the night.

This gorgeous sort of house in the medina is known as a riad,

a word that derives from an Arabic word for garden,

because they always have the internal patio.

It's all hidden from the outside.

There are no windows whatsoever on the ground floor

and just a very discreet door.

This is where I'm going to spend the night.

But first of all, after a warm day in Fez,

time to scrub off the dust of the day.

I feel I should experience a traditional Moroccan hammam,

which is an important part of Moroccan culture.

Moroccans come to these steam rooms to deep cleanse their bodies.

The purpose of a hammam is to remove a layer of dead skin.

First the body is washed with soap

before work begins in earnest with an exfoliating mitten.

The bit of stone on which I'm lying is very hot.

I'm effectively being griddled.

There's some discomfort but I'm assured it will all be worthwhile.

Today, I'm leaving Fez for a three-hour journey west

to the Atlantic coast.

I'll stop in Morocco's modern capital on my way to visiting

the extraordinary treasures of Casablanca.

My journey then takes me through desert

to seek the Berber origins of this country

in the former imperial capital of Marrakech.

GUARD BLOWS WHISTLE

I'd like to know more about the history of Morocco's railways,

which I believe were begun by the French

shortly before they took official power in 1912.

Mohamed Hatmi is Professor of History at the University of Fez,

and he's agreed to join me on this leg of my journey.

Morocco's railway history starts quite late compared with Europe.

When did the trains start here?

It began during the first decade of the 20th century.

It was a French company which began with a small section in Casablanca.

When you have a railroad, you have a place in Morocco.

So the first French railway was built

to consolidate France's territorial gain.

It was a modest narrow-gauge military network

used for the transport of weapons, fuel, cargo and soldiers.

It wasn't for civilians and certainly not for tourists.

The foreign traveller to Morocco in 1913 could not use the railway.

What were the roads like?

There was no road in Morocco, no bridge.

No road in the European sense of what is a road.

Transport in Morocco before the French presence was on animals.

Travel by camel or donkey was daring, arduous and uncomfortable.

It wasn't until the 1920s that standard-gauge railway lines

were constructed and the network opened to civilian passengers.

I'm very impressed that in Morocco

most of your lines are now electrified.

You're building the ligne grande vitesse,

high-speed railway.

Morocco has taken an enormous leap into modernity.

Yes, what is impressive is that people when travelling, when moving,

they think first to train.

HORN BLARES

I'm about to arrive in Rabat.

My guidebook tells me that it's a small port and a large Moorish town.

It's perhaps surprising that it doesn't mention

that in the year before publication,

the French had decided to move the Moroccan capital to the city.

As the great powers struggled with each other in the margins of Europe,

in the Balkans and in North Africa, for power and influence,

the political developments were moving too fast

for my Bradshaw's Guide.

When the French took control of Morocco in 1912,

they made Rabat the new capital.

They wanted a coastal location which was easy to reach

and whereas they faced violent opposition

in the university city of Fez,

in Rabat they found the local population more quiescent.

As I walk through the city,

everywhere I see the unmistakable stamp of the French.

What a contrast between Fez and Rabat.

The narrow alleyways of Fez have been replaced now

with these broad boulevards.

It's so different, you could believe that you'd come to

a different country, were it not for the profusion of Moroccan flags,

which, I suppose, is what you'd expect in the capital city.

The French resident general, Hubert Lyautey, trod carefully in Rabat.

He built the new town around the medina,

leaving the old Moroccan city intact.

He introduced European architecture with a Moorish tinge.

He was trying to maintain through architecture

the fiction that there was a partnership

between the Sultan of Morocco and the French.

In reality, the poor monarch was nothing more than a figurehead

and a puppet of a foreign power.

I'm struck by how modern life and ancient culture

seem to rub along together so easily in Morocco.

I wish that I could stay a little longer in the capital,

but I must return to the rails for a one-hour journey south

to Morocco's largest city.

"Casablanca," says my guidebook,

"is 200 miles down the coast from Tangier.

"The port and watergate are at the middle of the seafront of the town,

"the mosque is set back from the sea."

Just as 100 years ago,

Casablanca remains an important centre of commerce

and of religion.

But I think I'll discover that the mosque is now on the water.

Casablanca is the economic and commercial centre of Morocco.

It's home to the country's stock exchange and a major port.

Travellers at the time of my guidebook docked here,

entering the chaos with trepidation after the trials of their voyage.

I'm led to believe that the seafront is now home

to one of Morocco's most splendid sights.

Bradshaw's comments that the mosques everywhere in Morocco

"are never allowed to be entered,

"scarcely even approached by any but Mussulmans."

But today, if I'm quick before evening prayer,

I have an opportunity to go inside this enormous

and very impressive Hassan II Mosque.

CALL TO PRAYER

Commissioned by the father of the current king,

this mosque was inspired by a verse in the holy Koran which states

that God's throne was built upon the water.

Completed in 1993,

its soaring 210-metre high minaret makes it the tallest in the world.

Costing over £500 million,

it took 10,000 specialist craftsmen 50 million man-hours

to create this monumental building.

The vast prayer spaces can accommodate

25,000 worshippers inside

and a further 80,000 on the terraces outside.

Having been overwhelmed by the minaret, which rises as high

as many a skyscraper, I now find myself inside,

and again the dimensions are colossal.

I'm not sure I've ever been in a mosque or even a cathedral

that compares to this one in size.

And then, all the crafts of Morocco are on display here.

The wonderful marble of the floors, the beaten metal of the doors,

the wonderfully carved and painted ceilings,

all displaying Moroccan crafts.

It's as though this is not only a building of worship,

but a celebration of what the Moroccan people can achieve.

MELODY OF "AS TIME GOES BY" PLAYED ON PIANO

Many tourists to this city today

will think that they know Casablanca from the iconic 1942 movie

starring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.

But neither of them ever set foot here.

Rick's Cafe was pure Hollywood invention,

but such is the power of the silver screen that in 2004

an American former diplomat built a copy of the famous bar

here in Casablanca so that ardent fans like me

can relive those classic moments.

AS BOGART: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,

she walks into mine.

I've always wanted to do that.

Dawn, and I'm on the last of my train journeys

across this beguiling country.

I didn't relish having to arrive at the railway station in Casablanca

when it was still dark this morning

to catch this early train, but I've been rewarded

with a lovely sunrise over the plains of central Morocco.

For the Bradshaw tourist, this would have been a five-day trek.

My Marrakech Express will take me through

a wonderfully changing landscape

in just three-and-a-half hours.

We have abandoned the green plains.

For a couple of hours now the train has been snaking its way

through higher ground.

The map of Morocco is striped with ranges of mountains

running east to west.

Here the earth is reddish and the villages are camouflaged

against the dry landscape.

Beyond lies Marrakech and the peaks of the High Atlas.

Just 25 miles from the Atlas Mountains,

the homeland of the Berbers,

Marrakech was the first capital

of the Almoravid Empire in the 11th century, and is a Berber city.

Surrounded by desert, and known as the "Red City"

because of its vibrant sandstone buildings,

today it's a fusion of hip luxury and traditional Moroccan style.

I'm curious to visit a district of this city

that is steeped in tradition

and which provides one of the most important sources of income

for Marrakech - leather.

Bonjour.

-Bonjour, monsieur.

-Bonjour.

What an amazing sight.

As I came into the tannery, my nose was assaulted by the smell.

Here these pits are presumably all part of the curing process

of the skins. What a sight.

Little has changed here since the tanneries were founded

a thousand years ago,

and no doubt the Bradshaw traveller would have seen a similar spectacle.

It's a foul-smelling business,

but that's hardly surprising when you discover

that in order to remove the hairs and soften the hides,

they're soaked in solutions of lime and fermented pigeon droppings

for a week.

The skins are hand-dyed in an array of natural vegetable dyes

such as saffron, poppy, mint, and indigo.

So, what do you think of this place?

-I think it's horrible.

-Why?

I am vegetarian, and I like animals better

with their skin on themselves.

-It doesn't smell well here.

-Yeah, it stinks.

We need to use the mint to cover the smell.

Dad, so why did you bring them here?

Because I think they need to see everything that exists in Marrakech.

It's one of the cultural heritages Marrakech has,

how they make the leather, and how they do it in daily life,

and of course they need to see that.

The tanning process takes about 20 days.

The leather is sold to craftspeople

who work it into the distinctive bags,

belts and babouches, or slippers,

sold everywhere in the city's famous souks.

And, like most tourists here, I love a good market.

Moroccan metalwork is very lovely.

Its lamps are beautiful with their diffused light.

I often think of buying these things,

but then you get them home and you think,

"Where exactly do I put that?"

Because at home it's so out of character.

Hello, ladies. Where are you from?

-Switzerland.

-From Geneva.

This is quite different from Geneva.

-It is!

-It's a little bit different.

It's like the opposite!

I mean, Switzerland is such an orderly country,

such a clean country.

Here is pretty chaotic, do you like that, or do you find it dangerous?

I think it's a lovely chaos.

I don't think it's dangerous at all.

I think it's full of surprises.

Even in the souk, you meet so many people.

It's just amazing.

Such a different culture from where we are from.

Everything is a surprise.

On this trip, I'm not tempted to purchase a tagine or a lamp,

but I am rather taken with the traditional robe worn here,

known as a djellaba.

It's an important garment

that's considered a symbol of Moroccan identity.

Bonjour, monsieur.

Bonjour.

-Est-ce que vous avez des djellabas?

-Oui.

-Merci.

-Pas de quoi.

Traditionally made from wool...

..in Fez the fashion is to wear the hood to the back,

but in Marrakech it's worn to the side.

Across all of Morocco, hoods are used like pockets

to carry small bits of shopping.

Actually, in the few moments I've had this on,

I realise what a very smart garment it is, and how very practical.

Because, well, it's a beautiful colour and it's nicely shaped,

and it gets quite cold in Morocco, and this covers the ears,

and then you just take it down.

Really very, very nice.

-Au revoir.

-Merci, monsieur.

-Merci, monsieur.

As the day draws to a close,

I'm lured to the city's main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa.

Once the meeting point for the trans-Saharan caravans

trading spices, slaves and gold,

it has been at the heart of life in Marrakech for a thousand years

and comes alive at sunset.

One of the things I love about the countries of the Mediterranean,

with their warm climate,

is that life is lived on the street, outside.

You might say Moroccans take this to the extreme.

How would you describe this, this commotion, this consternation,

this bedlam?

What you can't deny is that these people are living life to the full.

RAPID DRUMMING, WHISTLES BLOW

Similar scenes of storytellers,

snake charmers and entertainers

would have greeted the Bradshaw traveller of 1913.

But there are signs that the intervening century

has changed Moroccan life.

Hello, ladies, excuse me.

-Hello.

-May I join you a second?

-Are you Moroccans?

-Yes.

So you're Moroccan tourists?

-Yes.

-You both look like very modern Moroccan girls.

Is it easy for a woman to be modern in Morocco?

Finally Morocco is open,

a lot of people are modern and open-minded.

Now, for instance, do you drink alcohol?

-No.

-No, you don't drink alcohol.

-Never. I never tried.

-Do you go to the mosque?

-Yes.

-Yes.

But you don't cover your head?

No.

In 2004, the current monarch, Mohammed VI,

brought in sweeping reforms granting women equal rights with men,

thereby making Moroccan women among the most liberated

in the Arab world.

I'm going to dine at one of the many food stalls here,

so that I can try a Moroccan speciality.

Merci, monsieur.

Seems suitably exotic.

Let's see how good I am at getting these little fellows out.

There we are, out it pops.

If you like snails, it's good.

C'est bon, monsieur, c'est bon. Oui?

-C'est aphrodisiaque.

-Ah.

Naturally, he claims it's an aphrodisiac,

I think nearly everything that's sold here is.

Yeah, it's nice.

It's the morning of my final day, and before I leave Morocco,

I want to find out more about the country's indigenous people,

the Berbers.

My quest takes me out of the city to the foothills

of the Atlas Mountains.

From the 11th to the 13th centuries,

Berber dynasties from the Sahara and the High Atlas ruled a vast empire

that stretched into Europe.

The name "Berber" originally came from the Latin "barbarian",

but it was the Arabs rather than the Romans who gave these tribal peoples

a single name, Barbar.

They call themselves Amazigh.

I've been invited for breakfast at the home of a Berber family.

-Bonjour.

-Bonjour.

Bonjour. Bonjour.

-Bonjour, ma petite. Bonjour, monsieur.

-Bonjour. Ca va?

-Ca va, merci.

-Bienvenue chez nous.

Merci, monsieur. Vous-etes Abdullah?

-Oui, monsieur.

-Je suis Michael.

Enchante, Monsieur Michael.

C'est ma famille.

Abdullah moved down from the mountains

to earn a better living and to send the children to school,

but he's keen to hold on to the Berber way of life,

so begins each day with a traditional breakfast.

So we're straining the impurities out of the milk.

The milk is going to be used in a harira,

which is a kind of soup for breakfast.

-Yes.

-I'm being invited, as guests are,

to do a little bit of adding of milk.

-Comme ca?

-Oui, monsieur.

This rich, calorie-filled soup

sets the family up for the day and is served with dates.

The soup is made, as I understand,

of milk and wheat and it's kind of like a rice pudding,

it's very, very creamy.

The harira is just the first course.

Freshly-made bread comes next and is served with hot tea.

I always wondered why they poured the tea

from such a great height. It is to create a foam at the top.

This is an amazing spread,

so we've obviously got Abdullah's mother-in-law's bread,

we've got eggs, we've got olives,

we've got fresh olive oil and then we've got these lovely sweet things.

Delicious breakfast.

The Berber civilisation can be traced back 4,000 years,

but its oral tradition has been all but overwhelmed by Arabic,

leaving the Berber language and culture

confined to rural and mountainous enclaves.

But in 2011,

the new Moroccan constitution

recognised this ancient culture and made Berber an official language

of equal status with Arabic.

Abdullah is Berber.

Raja is mixed Berber and Arab.

Abdullah obviously speaks Berber, Arabic and French.

The children at the moment only speak Arabic,

but from the age of seven they will be able to take Berber at school.

-Inshallah.

-Inshallah.

Moroccans enjoyed more than 1,000 years of independence.

They created a university at Fez and glorious mosques.

Based here in Marrakech, a Berber empire engulfed Spain.

But much later, Morocco failed to build roads and railways,

making it an adventurous destination for tourists a century ago.

That lack of economic progress made the country, humiliatingly,

prey to domination by European superpowers,

which squabbled over its territory

in the years before the First World War.

Now Morocco balances a traditional way of life,

represented by the medina at Fez, with modernity,

represented by the high-speed rail network.

I feel that Moroccans look back on their past with pride

and to their future with aspiration.

Next time, I set my sights on the Italian Riviera...

What do you say in Italian for "take that"?

Prendi la mira.

..as I take off on a new Bradshaw's railway tour...

My country's future depends on this.

..for a taste of la dolce vita.

-The secret of good pesto is...

-Muscle.

Buono, buono, buono.

I'm so excited.