Meknes

Meknès 

a city in northwestern Morocco; the capital of the province of Meknès. Population, 248,000 (1971). Meknès has a railroad station and an airport; it is also a highway junction and an important center for the surrounding agricultural region (wheat, olives, grapes, and citrus fruits). There are food-processing enterprises (a vegetable-oil mill, a flour mill and canneries) and textile and woodworking industries. Other industries include a large cement plant and a glazed pottery plant. The city was founded in the llth century.

Architectural monuments that have been preserved in the old city include walls with numerous gates (Bab al-Mansur, 1732), the Great Mosque (1203), the Bu Inaniya Madrasa (mid-14th century), the casbah of Dar Kebir (13th century) with the mosque of Lalla Aud (1276) and the palace of Dar Jamay (19th century), and the palace of Dar al-Makzen (end of the 17th century). In 1919 a modern city was begun northeast of the old city. A museum of Islamic art and a museum of folk art are located in Meknès.