Necropolis of Chellah, Chella or Sala (Arabic: شالة) is a necropolis and complex of ancient and medieval ruins that lie on the outskirts of Rabat, Morocco’s Ville Nouvelle, or modern section.

The site of Chellah is doubtless the most ancient human settlement on the mouth of the Bou Regreg river.

The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians, who founded several colonies in Morocco, probably inhabited the banks of the Bou Regreg. Chellah contains the remains of a Roman town known as Sala Colonia and referred to as Sala by Ptolemy. Excavations show an important port city town with uncovered remains including the Decumanus Maximus, or principal way, were discovered, as well as those of a forum, a monumental fountain, a triumphal arch, and other Roman ruins.

The site was abandoned in 1154 in favor of nearby Salé. The Almohad dynasty used the ghost town as a necropolis. In the mid-14th century, a Merinid sultan, Abu l-Hasan, built several monuments and the imposing main gate (dated to 1339). These later Merinid additions included a mosque, a zawiya, and royal tombs, including that of Abu l-Hasan.

Many of the structures in Chellah were damaged or destroyed in an 18th century earthquake.

The site has been converted to a garden and is now a tourist attraction.

(source: wiki)

The Mausoleum of Mohammed V contains the tombs of the Moroccan king and his two sons, late King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. It is located on the opposite side of the Hassan Tower on the Yacoub al-Mansour esplanade in Rabat, Morocco. The building is considered a masterpiece of modern Alaouite dynasty architecture, with its white silhouette, topped by a typical green tiled roof. Its construction was completed in 1971. Hassan II was buried there following his death in 1999.

(source: wiki)

Hassan Tower or Tour Hassan (Arabic: صومعة حسان) is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat, Morocco. Begun in 1195, the tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, also intended to be the world’s largest. In 1199, sultan Yacoub al-Mansour died, and construction on the mosque stopped. The tower only reached 44m (140ft), about half of its intended 86m (260ft) height. The rest of the mosque was also left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 200 columns being constructed.

Instead of stairs, the tower is ascended by ramps. The minaret’s ramps would have allowed the muezzin to ride a horse to the top of the tower to issue the call to prayer.

Yacoub al-Mansour was a member of the Almohad Dynasty, a berber, muslim empire in West Africa and Spain. The tower, according to tradition, was designed by an architect named Jabir who used similar a similar design plan for Hassan’s sister tower, the Giralda in Seville, Spain. Both of the towers were modeled on the minaret of another one of Jabir’s designs, the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech. Renaissance Spaniards later added a western style top to the Giralda, which was converted from a minaret to a bell tower for the Seville Cathedral after the Reconquista.

The tower, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms the most important historical and tourist complex in Rabat.

(source: wikipedia)

The church in Kiruna from 1912 is also notable, one of Sweden’s largest wooden buildings. The church exterior is built in an Neo Gothic style, while the altar is in Art Nouveau. It has separately been voted Sweden’s best looking church and the foremost Swedish pre-1950 construction.

Kiruna airport

the cityhouse

parking for dogs

the television station

Central High Atlas

A solid chalk mass morphologically dominated by tabular zones reaching an altitude of 2,500 m extends from Azilal to Ouarzazate. Here, the contrasting landscapes remind visitors of the Colorado, with its high plateaux, its gorges and box canyons, and its peaks sometimes splintered by erosion. Several peaks in this area exceed 4000 m, with Jbel Mgoun at 4068 m being the highest peak in this part of the High Atlas. The area is populated by Berbers.

A successful international conductor suddenly interrups his career and returns alone to his childhood village in Norrland, in the far north of Sweden.It doesn’t take long before he is asked to come and listen to the fragment of a church choir, which practises every Thursday in the parish hall. Just come along and give a little bit of good advice. He can’t say no, and from that moment, nothing in the village is the same again. The choir develops and grows. He makes both friends and enemies. And he finds love.

a really beautiful film!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_It_Is_in_Heaven

a really good good film with Di caprio, Damon and the fabulous Nicholson!

Not too difficult if you watch it in VO, the 2 most common words are “fuck” and “bitch” but really passionating to follow the story and really good time. i liked it.

i watched “shine” yesterday. it won´t stay in my 10-best-films-list, but it was ncie. nothing more.

Based on the true story of Australian pianist David Helfgott, this delightful movie charts the early and traumatic early years. Telling the story in flashback we see David as he grows up and into a child prodigy while his father abuses him and his siblings with the memory of his childhood in Europe and the loss of his family in the concentration camps. David finally breaks away from his father and goes away to study overseas, he later suffers a breakdown and returns to Australia and a life in an institution. Many years later he is released and through several twists of fate (in reality even more unlikely than film portrays) he starts playing a piano in a bar before finally returning to the concert hall.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117631/

Hej People!
by this beautiful weather today, i found nothing more interesting than to go to the cinema during 2h30! IT was to watsch Memoirs of a Geisha, and it was quite abnormal and nice. Nice landscapes, nice story, i enjoyed, but it won´t be one of the 10 best films i´ve ever seen. but nice.

Jarhead (the self-imposed moniker of the Marines) follows “Swoff” (Gyllenhaal), a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper’s rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don’t understand against an enemy they can’t see for a cause they don’t fully fathom… Foxx portrays Sergeant Sykes, a Marine lifer who heads up Swofford’s scout/sniper platoon, while Sarsgaard is Swoff’s friend and mentor, Troy, a die-hard member of STA-their elite Marine Unit.

This is an irish movie that is a lot of fun to watch. The underlying theme seems to be the changes in the Irish society brought upon by the global economy. Most of the things this globalization brings is good for a certain section of the population, mainly the moneyed classes, but nothing for those that have to take menial jobs because they have nothing to contribute, or are in the margins of that society, or are rebelling against the changes.

The characters in John Crowley‘s film are not the new privilege class being created by the advent of new business and technology, but those that are still struggling with a daily existence, trying hard to make ends meet, but not succeeding at it.

The opening scene with the magnificent Colin Farrell is something not to be believed. It comes so fast that we almost don’t have time to register what has occurred.

The acting is superb. BesidesColin Farrell, Shirley Henderson, as the spooky Sally, the little “grey riding hood” with a mustache, is hilarious. Also Colm Meaney, who is always good in every thing he does. He is an honest actor who lets us know who he is in every role he plays. As the detective Jerry Lynch, he is one of the best things in the film. Equally excellent are Cillian Murphy and Kelly MacDonald.

ah documentary about autist children in Norway. They are 500 of those children (total population: 4,6 millions).  Like all of those type of documentary, it was sad to see this child. [note: when you don´t feel concern with the thema, you don´t think it´s disturbing at all]. But I remarked that this 10 years old norway child could better speak english as the majority of 15 years old french people. I have already met autist people in France, but this child was so quiet that I think I wouldn´t have remark anything if I would have meet him for a short time.
I think we, people with a mentality from south europ, have to learn things from nordic behaviours.

btw- it´s crazy like norwegish is near from swedish, this documentary was subtittled in swedish (they spole norwegish of course) and I could understand most of the words. I don´t know if it´s normal now for my brain to hear things that it doesn´t understand, but i alla fall, I understood a bit.

ok, he looks litle handicaped but he is so cute! he is very young also (from this morning, birthfoto here at 11o´clock) and he is nice. Like a good swedish guy, he doesn´t  speak and is very quiet. He is very healthy too and want absolutely to stay outside. I´m afraid that he´s bigger now…. it´s snowing and snowing again today and it´s sooooooo cool :)
so i´m going to see if this relationship is going somewhere. I´m scared that I couldn´t be empty satisfied but to have someone who´s waiting for you every day in the cold winter, it´s something great, oho how much I love him! ;)

hi,
today it´s snowing and it´s super beautiful. I just took a little walk and it seems that Sweden is not in Town today. it´s freeday here and I met absolut no people! oho, it was so quiet, i have to wait a litlle bit to make my snowman but i will do it :) maybe tomorrow :)

it was today, a looooooot of snow in the night, very beautiful but very dangerous somtimes for walkers.

the royal family and today, the 19the january:

what means that the royal family gives her first lunch today for 150 people in the Stockholm´s castle. The Princess Lilian and Christina (with husband) took part in this lunch, which was in the Karl XI:s galleri. Silvia was sitting with Göran Persson and Victoria with the Kenya´s ambassador.

how E X I T I N G ! ! !

An orphaned boy, Champion, is raised by his grandmother, Madame Souza. Her gift of a tricycle starts a craze for cycle-racing that becomes the cornerstone of their life together. After years of relentless training, Champion makes it to the Tour de France, the toughest cycling event in the world. Alas, Champion and a handful of other top competitors are mysteriously kidnapped by a pair of sinister crooks with hangdog expressions. Supported by her faithful sidekick, her fat and flatulent dog Bruno, Madame Souza sets off to rescue her beloved Champion. An epic adventure leads them across the Atlantic to a vast seaport metropolis named Belleville, headquarters of the notorious French mafia. Lost and confused in the threatening darkness of the great city, Madame Souza and Bruno encounter the Belleville Triplettes, who, in their youth, were a glamorous close-harmony act. Now, these three batty old women are now a bizarre jazz combo. Mme Souza joins the band. At their very first gig, she discovers Champion is being held captive by the mafia Godfather himself! All hell breaks loose, and the chase is on! Do Mme Souza, her dim dog, and the Triplettes have what it takes to outsmart the ruthless French mafia and release poor Champion from its clutches?

It was a funny and well done anime. But one needs to have some good references about Tour de France and all what is going around to udnerstand all the lill things that are hidden in this film.

Hi!

last week, i went to see Casino Royal and i have to say i liked it. Some say that it´s violent but i found it was ok. a lot of things change from the “classical” James Bond but it was really pleasant.

and for you girls, David Graig is really somethiing ;)

after 2 more days in Helsinki, we had to come back to Sweden with Frida. We took the boat again to Stockholm but it was more quiet thant the first time. But i felt more sick because of the wawes, it´s crazy.

today is THE day, or what does it mean? just a occasion to eat and drink good things :D

I was alone this year, thought a lot of my familly but enjoyed malgré tout. It´s so sunny outside, i´m dissapointed by Sweden, I wanted a snowy day! bleh! but it´s quite nice :)

Mery christmas to all of you!

Hej!
today is Santa Lucia´s day: the children have to wake up the parents, the eleves the teachers, the students their prof. For one month we had to decide in every “community” who would be Lucia (typical a blond long haired girl). Lucia have to wear the candels today and to beginn the march to the people the procession have to wake up. The procession is composed of others girls, weared in white, and boys (tomte). They bring pepparkakor with them and sing the Santa Lucia´s song. It was cool this morning to be awake with cakes .D i liked very much!