Other Mausoleums at the Saadian Tombs
The main attraction of the Saadian Tombs is the Chamber of the Twelve Columns. I won’t be surprised if most people come and queue up for it and leave after that. I can’t blame them, since the queue for the Chamber of the Twelve Columns takes up a lot of time. But if you have more time, you can still explore the rest of the tomb complex. For a place which supposedly houses the remains of the Saadian rulers, there seem to be more buried here that the close to hundred year rule of the Saadian dynasty would suggest.
Tombs at the Saadian Tombs
As I found out, it wasn’t just the Saadian dynasty rulers were buried, but also the rulers of the dynasty that came after it, the Alaouite dynasty. There was no way for me to identify who is who, even if there was a way, I don’t know much about Moroccan history to understand its significance. I notice that the open air tombs seems to be a bit more random. Some had tomb stones and some didn’t. There were colorful tiles on all of them and I thought it was a strange thing to put in tombs but that is the culture here. There are several plots here which all have some kind of tomb. Alas it was all unnamed. It would be difficult for a relative to come and visit these tombs since most of them look alike.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/SaadianTombs.kmz} zoom=19]