Bab el Mansour, Meknes, Morocco

Morocco-6, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Bab el Mansour Aleuj is the largest and most remarkable door in Meknes completed in 1732 by Moulay Abdallah, son of Sultan Moulay Ismail. It was designed by a Christian convert to Islam, hence its name: The door of Mansour, the renegade. Marble columns that adorn the side bastions projecting from the ruins of Volubilis.

Meknes is a city in northern Morocco, located 130 kilometres (81 mi) from the capital Rabat and 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Fes. It is the capital of the Meknes-Tafilalet region. Meknes is named after a Berber tribe which was known as Miknasa (native name: Imknasn) in the medieval Arabic sources.
The land upon which the city is founded and much of its surrounding territory came under the domination of the Roman Empire in AD 117. The original community from which Meknes can be traced was an 8th century Kasbah, or fortress. A Berber tribe called the Miknasa settled there in the 10th century, and a town consequently grew around the fortress. Meknes saw its golden age as the imperial capital of Moulay Ismail following his accession to the Sultanate of Morocco.