Students dorm windows looking out to the main internal square of the Medersa

Looking down on the main square of the Medersa

Detail of carved colum and woodwork at the Medersa. The design, while distinctively Islamic, resembles a Corinthian Roman column (I reckon).

The main entrance to the square of the Medersa. At the top is carved woodwork, below it in cream is carved plasterwork (stucco), below that a layer of carved teracotta tiles and below that and on the floor is tile mosaic in geometric patterns.

A doorway leading away from the main square at the Medersa

Looking down on side of the portico of the main square of the Medersa. So many different types of design on one wall.

Of all tile work, this is the harest to do. Glazed teracotta tiles are carved like lino cuttings so that the glaze is left only in a few places, in delicate patterns. This tilework is so diffcult to acheive because it is easy to slip and one mistake ruins the entire tile. One level of the walls of the main square of the Medersa were covered in these kind of tiles.

Close up of stucco work at Medersa Ben Youssef. Workers carved into wet plaster and were able to acheive unbelievably delicate and intricate patterns.

Very fine stucco carving work at the Medersa. The window grills are made of carved plaster and look out from a student dorm.

Stucco window of student dorm overlooking the main square of Medersa Ben Youssef

Stucco archway, Medersa Ben Youssef

Carved stucco roof at the Medersa

Carved stucco design at the Mederesa

Detail of script in carved stucco. The remnants of paint can still be seen, and all this carved stucco work would once have been painted.

Looking down the hall of the students' quarters. Most students had very small rooms with tiny windows (although the rooms were cleverly designed to all have natural light, for pre-electric studying).

Main students' washroom, used for washing before praying and studying

Students' bathroom

Light fitting at the Medersa

Looking up the stairs to the student quarters

Tom looking a little awestruck at the Medersa

Me at the Medersa Ben Youssef

The Djemma el-Fna, the main square of Marrakech. During the day, it is full of motor cycles, tourists, carts, pedestrians, fruit stalls, snake charmers and wandering husslers. Our hotel overlooked the square and we enjoyed watching the goings on below us.

At about 4pm, owners of food stalls arrive in the Djemma el-Fna pulling their stalls on trailers behind them.

As dusk falls, the Square fills up: food stalls start serving customers, the music starts and story tellers gather crowds around them.

Once it is dark, the smoke from the foodstalls hangs over the Square. We loved a particular stall that served lentil soup with olive oil and chilli, to be eaten without a spoon by soaking with bread (and with the right hand only, of course!).

Our clothes drying in the sun at our Hotel CTM, just off the Djemma el-Fna

Carpets hanging out in Marrakech

Towards dusk in the Djemma el-Fna

The sun setting over the Djemma el-Fna, looking towards the Musassine Mosque Minaret.

Having a juice in the Djemma el-Fna

These husslers in the Djemma el-Fna insisted that we have our photo taken with them (they are in some kind of Berber costume) and then asked us for a lot of money. They do look ace though . . .

And again

Tom watching it all happen below him in the Djemma el-Fna from the rootop cafe of our Hotel CTM in Marrakech.

Orange and date stalls at the Djemma el-Fna

Snake charmers under the umbrella in the Djemma el-Fna

Djemma el-Fna

Around the Djemma el-Fna

Tower of the old Musassine Mosque, just north of the Djemma el-Fna in Marrakech

Tom's meatball and egg Tajine.

Half of my pastilla, a chicken pie (traditionally pigeon) served with cinnamon and icing sugar on top. It was too delicious to wait to take a photo of it!

Clothes dyeing works in Marrakech

A Few More Pics from Barcelona

A few photos from Barcelona that didn't quite make it into the last lot.

posted by Becky in Seville

The amazing wave-top roof of the school for children of workers at La Sagrada Família. This was designed by Gaudi to be built cheaply and torn down after construction finished. Construction is still going and the school has just been restored as a museum.

Another angle of the school.

La Sagrada Família, Barcelona, the church into which Gaudi sank most of his time and money constructing. Work began in 1882 and it is still going. This is the 'old' facade that was done during Gaudi's time.

This is a construction site, towers beign covered with mosaics.

On the 'new' side of La Sagrada Família

It all starts with a plan . . . Working plans of the roof skylights in the cathedral. These plans were in the plaster model room underneath the construction site.

Scale plaster model with minature tiles

String model of the type used by Gaudi to detrmine structural integrity of the skylights to go into the roof of the cathedral.

And the real thing