A couple of years ago I spent three remarkable weeks in Morocco. There are endless things to love about Morocco. I loved the incredibly diverse natural landscape that stretches from the Sahara desert in the south, across the High Atlas Mountains, to the seaside cities of M’Diq and Tangier in the North – with hundreds of little micro-climates and towns that fall in between.
Everything I saw seemed worthy of a photo (or 100) and I took, quite literally, thousands of them. Of those, hundreds of my shots were of doors. I love Morocco’s doors. Morocco has fantastic doors. Morocco really, deeply gets doors. Morocco has never heard of contractor-grade doors. This post would be a mile long if I tried to share the stunning variety of Moroccan doors I shot, so I chose to focus on the blue doors of Chefchaouen.
Chefchaouen is a city in the Rif Mountains of northwest Morocco. It’s known for the gorgeous, many-hued blue wash that covers everything from trash bins to mosques. The custom dates back to the 15th century, when Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition settled in Chefchaouen. They brought with them a tradition of painting things blue to mirror the sky and remind them of God. That tradition has continued into the 21st century where many things, including the doors, are still painted blue.
Big doors, tiny doors, wood and metal doors, studded doors, doors falling apart, doors to narrow, dark stairways. A painting of a door, next to a door. Doors.
Mmmm, most excellent, I could never tire of watching photos from here!
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Thank you!
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You can’t go wrong with doors and the color blue. Wonderful entry for both of these challenges. 😀
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Thanks so much Cee!
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Congratulations, your post has been selected by Cee to feature in her Fhoto Fun Challenge “Entrances and Doors”, well done!
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Ohh, exciting!! Thank you. 😀
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Your most welcome.
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Dear Diane, I was searching for the explanation of these blue doors in Marocco for quite a while. Where have you found this info about Jewish influence?
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Hi Awa,
If you Google “Jewish influence on Chefchaouen” you’ll find numerous citations across the web that attribute the tradition of blue paint to Jewish refugees. While the stated meaning of the color blue varies from site to site, in most cases it is associated with divinity and spirituality.
Hope that helps.
Diane
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Thanks a lot.
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Gorgeous Colors!
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These doors are so unique and brilliant that they’re near mystical! Awesomely inspiring.
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These photos really pop! Great color!
http://www.newstylemode.com
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Thank you so much!
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