A city! How can you write about an entire city for a blog about the architecture of individual buildings?! Well, dear reader, give me a chance to explain myself. The Blue City of Morocco, also known as the Blue Pearl (and Chefchaouen to the locals), is one of the most unique places in all of Morocco and indeed one of its prettiest. Built out of the golden dunes into the cliff sides of the Rif Mountains, the Blue City is a small blue dot in a country of tan and green. Founded in 1471, the Blue City was built to defend against the invading Portuguese. Two decades later and the city would expand with the arrival of Muslim and Jewish refugees fleeing forced conversion to Christianity in Granada, Spain. These newcomers are credited with the construction of the signature whitewashed houses and courtyards filled with citrus trees while also being influenced by Arabic styles of architecture. This in its own right makes the Blue City worthy of a blog about its unique architectural style, yet its true selling point is the dazzling blue that every house is painted with. Now, there are plenty of theories as to why this is the case, many believing it was motivated by the theological beliefs of the Jewish people who had migrated to the city, who, as legend has it, wanted to paint the houses blue to represent the sky which helped remind them about the presence of God. But, I have reason to believe that this is not the true reason. As a local would tell it the reason the houses are painted blue is for a practical reason rather than a theological one. Simply put the buildings are painted blue in an effort to drive away mosquitos and prevent malaria. This all being said of course as a mosquito casually sucked away at my arm, so actually maybe take this theory with a grain of salt. With all these fascinating details in mind, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to classify the entire city as one architectural marvel, and if you disagree with me then too bad I’m still going to talk about it.

I visited the city in the summer of 2019, and if you have read any of my other blogs before now then I am sure you have gathered by now that the summer of 2019 was a pretty busy time for me. Anyways, I had found myself in Morocco towards the end of July with a few other friends and had taken a bus tour to the city on one of our final days in the country. Just two hours outside of Tangier, the city is one of the biggest tourist destinations in all of the country. We arrived at the base of the city and were immediately welcomed by locals hoping to take us into their shops. After a bit of shopping, we decided to explore deeper into the maze-like alleys of the city. Eventually, I stumbled upon a river that cuts through the center of the town. Following it downstream I came across an informal bar setup in the riverbed. People took off their shoes here and sat in plastic chairs on top of the slick rocks. The bar, which was truly nothing more than just a tent and a table, was set against a nearby waterfall. Behind the table, the bartender let buckets of fresh fruit wash in the falling water. He then would slice the fruit and serve them on a paper plate for 4 dirhams (roughly 1 USD). After getting a beer and a plate of fruit I came across some ruins on the outskirts of the city. I was very fascinated by the ruins, knowing they must be hundreds of years old but also fascinated by how they were designed. They were made out of this very old stone and formed in a series of arches that built down into the river. I was very curious about what purpose they had served in the past, an old house, a church? Who could say, but regardless they stayed with me for some reason as I continued to think about their original purpose.

Before long it was time to leave, and after getting lost a couple of times, we made our way back to the bus. The Blue City was a marvelous adventure during my time in Morocco. Many of the cities in Morocco are beautiful and are all great examples of the wondrous world of Arabic architecture. But the Blue City stood out in such a different way. I think what stuck with me about its architecture is how it was its own thing, a homogenous whole really. None of its buildings look like the other buildings you’d come to expect in the cities of Morocco. Instead, they are made in a whitewashed style that you would be likely to see on the bountiful shores of Greece than in the arid dunes of the Sahara, and I think that’s something really amazing.