There are many shades of blue – cornflower, powder, cobalt, turquoise – but you never appreciate how many until you visit Chefchaouen. Set into the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco, this artsy, laidback city is home to an old medina almost completely awash in blue – blue walls, blue doors, blue everywhere you look.
Said to symbolise heaven and the sky, the colour scheme was introduced to the town by Jewish refugees in the 1930s, and has since become its most defining feature. Some also believe the blue helps repel mosquitoes.
Apart from the restored Kasbah in the Plaza Uta el-Hammam, there’s not all that much to see in Chefchaouen, attraction-wise. Instead, travellers come to unwind in rooftop cafes, hike out into rocky hills hatted with churches, and wander endlessly through the winding streets of the medina. Cats napping in sunken doorways, Berbers weaving carpets in cluttered shops, women stringing washing from window to window – the blue world of Chefchaouen is a photographer’s dream. Here’s a taste of that dream:
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Roy Cheung, Flickr
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw, Flickr
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Chris Ford, Flickr
Image c/o Brad Hammonds, Flickr
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Evengi Zotov, Flickr
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Image c/o Pippa Whishaw
Feature image c/o Roy Cheung, Flickr.
See the colours of Chefchaouen for yourself on a Peregrine Morocco adventure.
