The El Badi palace was home to the Saadian dynasty and known as "The Incomparable" in its heyday. Legend has it that upon completion, the king asked a guest/his court jester what he thought of it. The jester replied, "Your majesty, it will make a splendid ruin!" Now the palace is a ruin, as Moulay Ismail the Bloodthristy (well known for having over 1,000 children) stripped the palace of its ornamentation to use for his new palace in Mekenes after conquering the Saadians. It took workers over 10 years to remove everything of value.
El Badi is now home to giant stork's nests.
The El Badi bathroom.
The nearby Saadian tombs provide a glimpse of what the El Badi palace might have looked like. The tombs were likely spared because it is considered bad luck to desecrate gravesites. Instead, Moulay Ismail had them walled off and they sat undisturbed for centuries until the early 19th Century when a French official was curious about an anomoly seen in arial photos and broke through a wall to find the tombs.
Garden at the Saadian tombs.
The International Union for the Scientific Study of Populations meeting was the obstenable purpose of my visit. Actually, there were special sessions for evolutionary demography and I attended most of the conference because demographers study many issues related to life history.
Bigwigs at the opening session.
Now it's time for a show!
My turn on the stage, in a much smaller room of course.
The Royal Theatre is a local landmark in the New City near the new conference center.
We evolutionists gathered for a dinner at a Riad that was right next to the El Badi palace. We were right next to the stork nests that I saw a few days before.