Marrakech
The old capital below the Atlas, whose main square only comes alive after dark
- When to go
- October 23° · 3 rainy days
- Per day
- €€price 2 of 5
- How many days
- 3days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 5 km Marrakesh
- Right now
Marrakech needs three days: a medina inside 19 kilometres of Almoravid walls, holding the souks, the palaces and Jemaa el-Fnaa, and outside it the French-built Guéliz and the Jardin Majorelle. The city dates from around 1070, the medina went on the UNESCO list in 1985, and Essaouira and the Ouzoud falls each need a day of their own.
Jemaa el-Fnaa changes use with the time of day: by day the square belongs to orange-juice sellers and water carriers, towards evening to storytellers and musicians, and after dark dozens of food stalls go up and the crowd peaks. Pass through only at noon and you see the first of three shifts; for the performers and dinner both, arrive before sunset and stay late.
The medina's sights lie on either side of the square, all within a kilometre in a straight line: to the north the souks and the Ben Youssef Madrasa, to the south the Bahia and El Badi palaces and the Saadian Tombs. So the medina is done in halves, on foot, one half a morning. The Jardin Majorelle is outside the walls, about two kilometres north-west of the square, and its tickets aren't sold at the gate — only online, for a half-hour slot — so that gets booked before you travel, and the rest is arranged around the heat.
Guides for Marrakech
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Marrakech in 3 days
→The medina in the morning, gardens at midday and the square only after dark — three days that respect the heat and the…
Where to stay in Marrakech
→A riad in the medina changes the trip, but the suitcase gets carried — a hotel in Guéliz has a pool and a lift, but no…
Marrakech behind the stalls: a museum terrace, a local bakery
→A photography museum with a terrace, a spice apothecary, and a bakery the neighbourhood brings its own dough to…
What to see in Marrakech
Jemaa el-Fnaa
The square between the souks and the Koutoubia, free to enter at any hour. Snake charmers, musicians, monkey handlers and henna women make their living from visitors: every photo and every service is paid for, and the price is agreed before the phone goes up.
Jardin Majorelle
A one-hectare garden the painter Jacques Majorelle worked on for almost forty years from 1923, bought and rescued by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 1980. The garden alone is €16; the Musée Yves Saint Laurent next door, opened in 2017, and the Berber museum in the villa are charged separately. A hectare takes an hour, so pair it with Guéliz.
Bahia Palace
Begun in the 1860s by the grand vizier Si Musa and extended by his son Ba Ahmed up to 1900 to almost two hectares and some 150 rooms. The largest space is the main courtyard, 50 by 30 metres and paved in Italian marble, under painted cedar ceilings. None of it shows from the street — which makes it the best example of what the medina hides behind blank walls.
Koutoubia Mosque
An Almohad mosque built between 1158 and 1195, its 77-metre minaret the likely model for the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. Non-Muslims can't go in, as with most working mosques in Morocco, so you see it from the garden alongside, a few minutes' walk from the square.
Saadian Tombs
The mausoleum of the Saadian rulers, built under Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur at the end of the 16th century. Under Moulay Ismail it was walled off from the buildings around it, and the protectorate's monuments service rediscovered it in 1917. Entry is €9.20. You don't walk into the hall of twelve Carrara marble columns — you look in from the doorway, so there's a queue for the best angle.
Two things you probably did not know
The walls of Marrakesh and most of the old town are built of rammed red earth, not brick. That is where the colour that earns it the name of the red city comes from, and the earth for repairs is still dug nearby.
Jemaa el-Fnaa square is on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage, not for its buildings but for the storytellers, musicians and healers who have worked on it for centuries. It was one of the first entries of that kind, in 2001.
Ready for Marrakech?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Marrakech — day trips or weekends.
Morocco
→The north by train, the south by road, and in July you leave Marrakech for the coast
Portugal
→A country that spent centuries looking at the ocean instead of the Europe behind it
Turkey
→Istanbul, then one direction: Cappadocia by plane, Ephesus and Pamukkale by train, or the Lycian coast by bus
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Ait Ben Haddou, Essaouira and Casablanca
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Marrakech if you have been.
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