Meknès

It's easy to understand why Meknès is considered the Versailles of Morocco. Meknès's three sets of imposing walls, architectural Royal Granaries, symmetrical Bab Mansour, and spectacular palaces are as beautiful as any French monarch's creations. Less inundated with tourists and more provincial than Fez, Meknès offers a low-key initiation into the Moroccan processes of shopping and bargaining. The souks and the Imperial City are just as impressive as their Fez counterparts, but the pace is slower and the pressure lighter. Whether it was post-Moulay Ismail exhaustion or the 1755 earthquake that quieted Meknès down, the result is a pleasant middle ground between the Fez brouhaha and the business-as-usual European ambience of Rabat.