Best of Marrakech

The Jardin Majorelle is distinguished by its vivid, cobalt-blue buildings, a striking shade of pigment that the French artist Jacques Majorelle patented and named after himself. He arrived in Marrakech in nineteen seventeen to recover from…

You can identify the Dar El Bacha by its set of heavy, hand-carved cedar doors tucked into the dense streets of the Medina. This building was constructed in nineteen ten as the private residence of Thami El Glaoui, the man who served as…

The Madrasa Ben Youssef is the largest Islamic college ever constructed in the Maghreb. You can distinguish the site by its central courtyard, a space framed by a reflecting pool and walls densely covered in geometric zellige tilework,…

Jemaa el-Fnaa is a sprawling, triangular public square that anchors the entrance to the old city of Marrakesh. Since the city's founding in the eleventh century, the square has acted as a persistent center of trade and daily life. It is…

The Koutoubia Mosque is recognized by its seventy-seven-meter minaret, a slender tower of ochre sandstone that rises above the city medina. It was founded in the twelfth century by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu’min. The mosque stands as a…

You can identify Bab Agnaou by its heavy, horseshoe archway, faced in distinct bluish-grey sandstone that has weathered over eight centuries into a warm, reddish hue. Unlike the simple clay-built gates common to the city walls, this…

The Saadian Tombs in Marrakesh hold the remains of the Saadian dynasty, a royal family that ruled Morocco from fifteen fifty-four until sixteen fifty-nine. The site is a compact necropolis recognized by its two main mausoleum buildings and…

The Bahia Palace unfolds as a maze of one hundred and fifty rooms spread across a single level, a layout dictated by the physical stature of the man who expanded it. You can identify the complex by its sprawling footprint in the southern…