Corner View - Evening Sky

Salalah Beach, Oman

Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakesh, Morocco

Sana'a, Yemen

Top 10 Cities in the World - 9 Marrakech

NUMBER 9 - MARRAKECH

Marrakech is both ancient and exotic. If you are prepared for the fact that Marrakechis have 101 ways to relieve foreigners of their money, you can begin to enjoy the sights and sounds of 'The Pink City".

Marrakech was founded nearly a thousand years ago by Youssef ben Tachfine, the first leader of the great Almoravid dynasty, who conquered southern Spain for the Moors. His son, Ali ben Youssef, brought in the best architects and craftsmen from Cordoba to build a great capital city for his empire. In 1126 the city was fortified with walls around it. Then, between 1150 and 1199 the Koutoubia mosque, which you can see in the first photo, was built.

At the heart of the Old City is one of the biggest squares in the world, Djemaa el Fnaa, which although it means Assembly of the Dead in Arabic, is full of life, especially after sunset, when it has hundreds of food stalls, lit by lanterns, fresh orange juice sellers, musicians, dancers, acrobats, magicians, fortune tellers, henna artists and snake charmers, all plying their trades. Wander off the square and you will disappear into a maze of souqs.

It is a city that is not always easy on the eye, the ear or the pocket. No matter how well you speak French or Arabic, and no matter what that friendly carpet seller, who treats you like a long-lost brother, tells you, you will always be an outsider in Marrakech. When I pointed to the meter in a taxi, the driver shrugged, took another drag on his cigarette, and replied, as the smoke drifted past his No Smoking sign, "That's for local people". But, perhaps the fact that you will never feel at home in Marrakech, is what makes it so exotic.

Number 10 - Kiev

Corner View - Gardens

JARDIN MAJORELLE, MARRAKECH

ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS, KANDY

The theme of this week's Corner View is actually 'garden', but I'm going to look at more than one, as here in Oman we have an unispiring back yard with a bit of bougainvillea, which attracts Sunbirds, African Silverbills and White-eyes, but it's not particularly photogenic. Back home in Hampshire, we have a house with a typical English garden, but as we only go back to take care of it for a few weeks each summer, it's beginning to go to rack and ruin. Probably, the most interesting garden I ever had was when I lived in a little whitewashed villa in Spain. It had orange and persimmon trees and grape vines, and I copied the locals by growing most of my own vegetables there. Can't find any photos of it though. You probably noticed there were a few 'buts' there, which all leads me to the fact that I'm not going to show you any of them. Instead I'm going to look at a few public gardens that have particularly impressed me in my travels around the world.

I like minimalist gardens, maybe because they are so different to what I grew up with in England, and I've always been attracted to the exotic. My favourite is the Zen Rock Garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto. It consists simply of a rectangle filled with a bed of gravel and fifteen rocks. Laid out in the fifteenth century, it is regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese culture.

"That is a description, but to understand its effect, and its purity, you have to go there. The design generates tension, drawing the viewer to contemplate the mystery of Zen. It can't be photographed in entirety, the dimensions could drive any photographer to distraction, but thats the beauty of it. All you can do is just put the camera away, sit down and contemplate it. Especially when you realize that no matter where you sit, you will only see 14 of the rocks at any one time. The longer you sit, the more the garden fascinates." Japan Travel Guide. So, again, no photos, but it left a lasting impression on my mind, as I'm sure it will on yours when you go to see it for yourself. I expect some of you already have.

My second favourite is Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech. Currently owned by Yves Saint Laurent, it was originally laid out by another Frenchman, Jacques Majorelle, in 1886. Like the Ryoanji rock garden, it is a place that inspires contemplation and wonder, although I'm sure that some visitors must walk round it once, which can be done in less than five minutes, and ask, 'Is that it?' The garden is indeed small and simple, but the cacti and palm trees are set off to perfection by the blue architecture. This time there are photos, but they don't really do it justice. Again, you should go to Marrakech and see it for yourself one day.

Third place must be shared by a number of botanical gardens which feature collections of rare and exotic plants and trees collected by Victorian botanists , including Kew Gardens in London and the Royal Botanical gardens of Calcutta and Kandy, the last of which is featured in the photos. They are vestiges of a lost empire, and, like my garden in England, many of them, especially the one in Calcutta, are becoming ovegrown and going to rack and ruin. The great Mughal Shalimar gardens on the shores of Dal lake in Kashmir have been abandoned and neglected for even longer, but you can still conjure up visions of their lost beauty as you drift by them in a shikara .

Do you remember that children's book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden? There is something intriguing about the idea of being able to enter a long-lost secret garden, isn't there?