'Without doubt, Morocco, with one or two kingdoms in Asia,
represents the last surviving example of a civilization of the ancient world.
One finds here customs, moral, and physical aspects of mankind
that are eternal, simply because they have never changed.
Constantly, watching a gesture of prayer or salutation,
a dance, a semi-naked beggar,
the way a tailor prepares his cloth,
a pilgrim following his donkey across the vast expanse of the bled,
or looking into the smoky shade of a mill
where occasional shafts of light pierce the tangle of beams,
we feel we have seen it all before ...
For all the differences of appearance
they recall to us the essential identity of mankind.
If such a world, which shares so deeply the spirit of the past,
had disappeared two thousand years ago,
we would have lost a certain understanding of the past
and of ourselves, for we could never have re-created it ...
But that it has survived until our times,
that we can see it, we can touch it, we can mix with its people,
is a miracle that never ceases to astonish.'
Source: Morocco Modern by Herbert YPMA
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