The holy town of Moulay Idriss is located in the Middle Atlas near Meknes, in northern Morocco. Built on a steep hillside, its houses cluster around a white mosque and mausoleum capped by the distinctive shiny green-tile roof associated with religious monuments in Morocco. This is the shrine of Moulay Idriss I and together with that of his son, Moulay Idriss II in Fez, it is the most sacred shrine in all Morocco. A great-grandson of the Prophet, Moulay Idriss sought refuge to escape persecution following the Sunni-Shi`a split in Iraq in the eight century. Settling in the Zerhoun region, he founded a town where local Berbers welcomed him as their new imam. Concerned by his growing influence, the Abbasid rulers in Baghdad ordered him poisoned, but two months after his demise, one of his concubines bore a son, Idriss II founder of the illustrious city of Fez. Tourists are welcome to visit Moulay Idriss. You can walk along its streets lined with stalls selling candles and religious trinkets to the mausoleum, but a rail prevents non-Muslims from proceeding further. The moussem of Moulay Idriss is one of the most spectacular devotionals of more than six hundred religious pilgrimages to saintly shrines in Morocco.