The Prison Of Kara

Meknes is an imperial city of Morocco, and there are several monuments in Meknes that are worth the visit, but, there is only a place in this city that you have to be brave enough before even thinking about visit it, a place which mixture the horror of the history and the legends of past centuries, a place full of secrets never revealed before!

The Prison of Kara, an underground prison, without doors, no one knows exactly when it was built, but the historical sources and historians think it was built most likely in the time of the great Sultan Mulay Ismail, in the 17th century. The historians are not totally agreed about the main purpose of its building, some think it was essentially a granary which was used some times as a prison, especially for the Christian prisoners during the war between Morocco and the European nations, and it was also used as a prison for Moroccan rebels.

Many stories are told about the horribleness of the Prison of Kara, it’s composed of a basement network extends over a large area underground. It’s the only prison in the world without doors and does not contain windows or locks, but rather endless corridors and arches leading to very complex mazes, as in every hall there are several paths, and each corridor leads to another hall, which makes it impossible to find the way out again, just as it is extremely difficult to get back where it came from, to the point that prisoners did not dare escape from it.

However, the Prison of Kara is now one of the important touristic destinations in the region of Meknes and Morocco, the place is managed by the Moroccan ministry of tourism, and the visit is open for all the fans of history!