MEKNS

city, north-central Morocco. It lies about 70 miles (110 km) from the Atlantic Ocean and 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Fs. One of Morocco's four imperial cities, it was founded in the 10th century by the Zanatah tribe of the Meknassa Berbers as Meknassa ez-Zeitoun (Mekns of the Olives), a group of villages among olive groves; it grew around Takarart, an 11th-century Almoravid citadel. Mekns became the Moroccan capital in 1673 under Maulay Isma'il, who built palaces and mosques that earned for Mekns the name Versailles of Morocco. His city wall, fortified by four-cornered towers and pierced by nine ornamented gates, still stands. After his death the city declined. In 1911 it was occupied by the French, who built a new quarter, separated from the old by the Bou Fekrane River. Mekns has massive buildings of a heavy splendour, the Roua (stables said to have housed 12,000 horses), and celebrated gardens irrigated by water from a 10-acre (4-hectare) artificial lake. Mekns is a commercial centre for the surrounding fertile agricultural plateau region and is also a market for fine embroidery and carpets, woven chiefly by Berber women of the Moyen Atlas mountains. The city is linked by road to Rabat and by rail with Fs, Tangier (Tanger), and Casablanca. The ruins of the Roman Volubilis and the holy city of Idris, who founded the Idrisid dynasty, are nearby. Grapes, cereals (primarily wheat), citrus fruits, olives, sheep, goats, and cattle are raised in the surrounding region. Fluorite is also mined near Mekns. Pop. (1982) mun., 319,783.