Saadian Tombs (Marrakech, Morocco)

The Saadian tombs are a spectacular burial monument for the family of the sultan who ruled Morocco in the 16th century. Amazingly, this beautiful monument was abandoned and essentially lost for centuries. When the Saadian dynasty ended, and a new dynasty came into power, they had no desire to remember the Saadians, but a strong piety about burial sites made them reluctant to raze them. So they just walled them up and built around them. In a dense city like Marrakech, it's actually not at all hard to imagine how an entire monument could have been lost behind walls. It was only rediscovered in 1917 by a French aerial survey. The tombs are highly ornate and feature elaborately carved plaster (called yeseria), carved cedar wood, and mosaic tile work (called zellij) which are the hallmarks of classic Moroccan decorative architecture. In addition, Carrara marble (traded by the Tuscans for Moroccan salt and spices) is used for the tombstones and columns. The tombstones are not like tombstones we are used to. Some of them are simple slabs flat to the ground marking a coffin-sized outline. Some slabs have colorful mosaic patterns on them. The more important ones have a long low narrow white stone that runs approximately the length of the tomb, as if to suggest the position of the body beneath. To me, they called to mind the concrete blocks we use to mark the head end of a parking space. (I mean no disrespect by that, it's just visually what they called to my mind.) The most important ones were made of marble and had some beveling and embellishment, but still basically that same shape. So far as I could tell, these tombstones had no writing on them. They just served to mark the spot, and I guess it was left to the memories of succeeding generations to remember who was buried where.