Marrakech-Safi
Marrakech
The red city, its medina and the loudest square in Africa.
- Best time to visit
- March to May and October to November. July and August are very hot.
- Ideal for
- First-time visitors, food, shopping, culture, city breaks
Introduction
Marrakech was founded in the eleventh century as a Almoravid capital, and it has been a crossroads ever since — between the Atlas and the plain, between the Sahara caravan routes and the Atlantic, between the very old and the very new.
The medina is still walled, still built of the pink-red pisé that gives the city its nickname, and still organised by trade. Outside the walls, Gueliz and Hivernage are a different city entirely: wide boulevards, galleries, restaurants. Most visitors want both, and the two are ten minutes apart.
Why visit
- 01
Jemaa el-Fnaa is genuinely unlike anywhere else, and it is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.
- 02
The concentration of monuments is high: palaces, tombs, madrasas and gardens all within a walkable medina.
- 03
It is the best-connected city in Morocco and the natural starting point for the Atlas and the south.
Things to see
- Jemaa el-Fnaa square
- The Koutoubia Mosque and its minaret
- The Bahia Palace
- The Saadian Tombs and El Badi Palace
- The Ben Youssef Madrasa
- The Majorelle Garden and the Berber Museum
- The souks and the tanneries
Things to do
- Walk the medina with a licensed guide
- Cook a tagine, starting at the market
- Take mint tea on a rooftop over the square
- Visit a traditional hammam
- Shop the souks by trade rather than at random
- Take a half-day into the Ourika Valley
Local experiences
- Orange juice pressed in front of you on the square
- Storytellers and Gnaoua musicians after dark
- Breakfast in a riad courtyard under orange trees
- The call to prayer heard from a rooftop at sunset
Food
Food
Marrakech is the best eating city in Morocco. Tanjia — beef or lamb slow-cooked in a clay urn in the ashes of a hammam furnace — is the local specialty and is not found elsewhere. Add grilled meats from the square, harira soup, msemen pancakes at breakfast, and a serious modern restaurant scene in Gueliz.
Culture
Culture
Marrakech has always been the meeting point between Arab Morocco and the Amazigh south, and both are audible in the streets. Jemaa el-Fnaa keeps alive an oral tradition — halqa storytelling, music, performance in a circle — that UNESCO listed precisely because it was disappearing everywhere else.
Best highlights
- 01
Jemaa el-Fnaa after dark
- 02
The Bahia Palace
- 03
The Majorelle Garden
- 04
A rooftop at sunset
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