Laila Lalami blogged today about trampling Marrakesh. She made the point that, with all of the recent articles about Morocco, more and more tourists are visiting the country (and Marrakesh in particular). Lalami said:

When we were there last spring, I saw a moronic British tourist sticking his ass out of one of the windows of the Ben Youssef Medersa. The floors of the seminary’s student rooms were damaged by all the activity, and one of the guides kept touching the exquisite plaster work in the inner courtyard with his bare hands… The tile floors at the Bahia palace were completely falling apart, and people had no regard for the artifacts. The Menebhi palace was also starting to show signs of wear. Sad.

I don’t disagree - it’s unbelievable how disrespectful Western tourists visiting Morocco can be. While it’s one thing for French women to sashay around in miniskirts, it’s another thing to completely disregard artifacts. When visiting the Jardins Majorelle last April, I saw that many of the bamboo trees had people’s names scratched into them (although one of the best photos I took was of “Rajae + Mehdi”).

I would also like to point out, however, that the responsibility is not entirely on the tourists. Foreign tourists bring extraordinary revenue into cities like Marrakesh, yet little is done to maintain buildings. If the floor in the Bahia Palace is showing signs of wear (a normal effect of the millions of feet which walk across it), then it requires restoration and regular upkeep which, sadly, I believe few Moroccan sites are getting.

p.s. Here’s the article which Ms. Lalami based her post on (if you ask me, it’s disgusting).

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