Moroccan Souk

The souk is crowded. It comes alive once a week when everywhere in the town is busy as people spill over into the Main Street. Traders arrive the night before and set up their places ready for customers who arrive in the early morning. The market opens at sunrise and closes at sunset because there are no lights. The edge of town becomes a taxi rank as drivers prepare to carry people and their bags home. The narrow streets are filled with all kinds of transportation waiting to carry home the larger things that have been bought.

So much more than just a market the Moroccan souk is a way of life, part of the culture, one that has stood the test of time. It still sees people travel from far and wide to buy or sell just about anything you can imagine. It’s a weekly event in most small cities, towns and villages on different days but never on a Friday. The size of the market is relative to the size of the place, some so big you could easily get lost. Its more than a day out and for some more important than work.

It’s the only day of the week when things stand still while people spend their wages on whatever they need in the place where they will get the best deal. It goes without saying that haggling is an important part of buying anything at the souk, start low and be prepared to meet in the middle.

It’s all about the last price and part of the fun so enjoy the process as well as the purchase.
The souk is a meeting place for friends who live far apart, some in the mountains in remote villages, a chance for a chat and maybe to share a meal, a social event. Having travelled so far, food is very important, and of course it is the end of the week so there isn’t much left.

Souk day is the day when breakfast and lunch are made up of what’s leftover. Tajine, normally served at lunch, has to wait until dinner when supplies have been restocked. It used to be the only day of the week that people ate meat, for some that still applies as they have no way to keep it on the long journey home or they simply can’t afford it. Some bring their own food and cook it themselves, others bring their food and pay someone to cook it for them, others still buy food cooked at the souk. There is every kind of food here from harira to kebabs and msemen to tajine.

The souk is set out with a place for everything and everything in its place, some people rent a place so you will find the same people in the same place week after week month after month. There are also carts that move around the market selling seasonal produce and goods, strawberries this week, water mellon in the summer and who knows what next week, the “market police” keep them moving making sure they don’t block the narrow pathways. From a distance the souk looks like a refugee camp, with tents of all shapes and sizes placed in a random way and smoke rising from the many food stalls.

Find your way around the narrow crowded streets, the people and the donkeys and take in everything that’s on offer. All laid out on plastic sheets on the ground or simply sold from the back of a van. There are many second hand goods some of which could be used just for spare parts but there is the odd bargain, just the thing you were looking for! Let the haggling begin…
There are goods here to suit every purse and every taste and here you will find the rich rubbing shoulders with the poor, everyone comes to the souk! There is fruit and vegetables, cooked food, raw food and even live food waiting to be slaughtered in a halal way.

You can buy large supplies of every grain, all types of flour and pulses of any kind. Dates, figs and all manner of nuts both shelled and not. There is kitchen equipment, clothes, toiletries, plants and olives both green and black and some flavoured with chilli, coriander or lemon.
Every item of clothing you will ever need from underwear to takshetas, jelabas in the latest style and colours and pyjamas with matching dressing gowns, from socks to winter coats – new/old whatever you need.
How about a blanket or two or a mattress or maybe a piece of second hand furniture, you will find it here and almost certainly at the right price if you look hard enough or are prepared to haggle….

Fancy a haircut? Join the long queue for the barber and get a cut for 5 dirham and maybe a shave if you need it!
Produce is brought to market by the people who plant, tend and harvest it and they often come a long way to sell it. Moroccans love food from the local farms and the souk is the place to buy free range eggs and meat. Piles of every imaginable vegetable lay on plastic sheets under tar paulins propped up with wooden poles, just like tents with ropes staked to the ground. Watch your step or you will trip! Customers ask for the price and a bowl is thrown with ease. Fill it with what you want and get it weighed, tomatoes, cauli flower and potatoes it’s all here.

The men work with the speed of experts, throwing the bowls around with ease, weighing and tipping produce into bags, tying them in one swift movement and placing them in piles by the counter. How do they remember what belongs to who? Does everyone go home with what they bought? All the time shouting at passersby to come and buy. There are many people with carts waiting to take your bags to your car if you want them to.

No one buys 6 tomatoes here, so everyone’s bags are heavy and for a few dirham you can get someone else to take the weight! Everyone is hoping to do business of some sort or another and mostly this is done loudly
Listen to the tanno ys barking out Arabic, their places surrounded by customers who watch their demonstrations with interest. Is it medicine, something from the Berber pharmacy you want or maybe the latest satellite dish, you’ll find them here.

So the souk is over for another week, everyone is making their way home with bags full. The traders have tidied their places ready for next week and the rubbish is waiting to be collected. Every other day of the week this area is like a ghost town, during the days a dusty empty space and at night dark and quiet. It’s not easy to believe that it’s the same place, come back next week and it will all start again.

The smells, sights and sounds of the souk need to be experienced first hand to fully appreciate the ambience and a visit to the souk is a must if you’re in Morocco