Morocco's forgotten imperial city — grand gates, medina, and mechui grills
Meknes is the least visited of Morocco's four imperial cities — which makes it the best one to actually experience. Sultan Moulay Ismail built a Versailles-scale palace complex here in the 17th century with 40km of walls, enormous granaries, and a stable for 12,000 horses; today much of it is quietly crumbling and wonderfully free of the tourist crowds that pack Fez and Marrakech. The medina is compact, the mechoui (whole-roasted lamb) is famous, and prices are half of Fez.
Meknes was Morocco's capital under Sultan Moulay Ismail (1672–1727), who used 30,000 Christian prisoners of war and 50,000 enslaved Africans to construct his imperial city over 55 years. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake damaged much of the palace complex, and after Moulay Ismail's death the capital shifted to Fez. The city was a UNESCO World Heritage Site as of 1996 and is still quietly being excavated — archaeologists estimate less than 5% of the palace has been unearthed.