Heri es-Souani

Moulay Ismail's imperial city was designed to withstand a siege and to support a very large standing force, and Heri es-Souani is the logistics half of that: a grain store built with walls about four metres thick, small high openings and vaulted roofs, so that the interior stays cool and dry through a Meknes summer without any mechanism at all - the thermal mass does the work, and the principle is the same one used in traditional building across the region, applied here at enormous scale. Water was raised from a well by animals turning a wheel and distributed by channel. Behind the granary are the remains of the stables, said to have housed twelve thousand horses, now a forest of roofless arched piers running away in rows further than you can see the end of, the roof having gone in the 1755 earthquake. The scale of the ruin is the thing rather than any detail in it.

What you actually see

• Four-metre walls - thermal mass keeping grain cool with no mechanism.
• Vaulted stores - high small openings and dark cool interiors.
• Roofless stables - rows of arched piers running out of sight, unroofed since 1755.
• A siege logistics system - built to supply a very large force indefinitely.

When to go

October to April; the interiors are a relief in any heat. An hour.

Honest expectations

The stables are a ruin with no interpretation and can read as simply empty. Entry is charged. It is a walk or a taxi from the medina and the imperial city is spread out. Summer heat outside the vaults is severe.

Nearby

The Agdal basin is beside it; the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail is north.