Description

Marrakesh is the major city of central Morocco. Enchantingly sited at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains, its rose-coloured walls set within lush green gardens, olive groves and palmeries, it is hard to imagine that Marrakesh, one of Morocco's four Imperial Cities, lies on the edge of the Sahara. Its very name conjures up images of magic carpets and snake charmers - and not without reason. After dark, the central square in the medina, Jemaa-el-Fna, comes to life and puts on a show little changed since medieval times. It is a riot of enticing colour, noise and smells, with dancers, fire-eaters and acrobats, snake charmers and snake oil salesmen, story tellers and fortune-tellers and rows of trestle tables serving up smoking barbecues, mouth-watering tajines and less-than-appetising entrails. Around this vast open space stretch the shadowy alleyways of the souks, a vast marketplace selling herbs and potions, carpets and candles, jewellery, spices, meat and metalwork. Marrakesh has long been an important crossroads and trading centre for the Arabic, Berber and black African civilisation. To the Arabic northerners, it is seen as the "beginning of the south".

The ancient section of the city, known as the medina, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.

Koutoubia mosque.

Jemaa El Fna Place.

Marrakesh gave its name to the kingdom of which it was long the capital. Marrakesh is not only a fantastic city, it is also a symbol of the Morocco that once was, and which still survives here. The streets of the old and pink city have been too narrow to allow the introduction of cars, and tourists searching for the "real" Morocco have turned the medieval structures of Marrakesh into good business.

Click inside the red ellipses to zoom in on the Koutoubia and on the Jemaa El Fna Place.

Patio.

This QuickBird image acquired on the morning of 04/21/2002 shows the famous central square of the Marrakesh medina. Unfortunately, clouds and haze cover the area between the Koutoubia minaret and the south-Western part of the Jemaa El Fna place. Due to the height of the tower and the inclination angle of the sensor at the time the image was captured, the minaret, situated in the centre of the image, seems to lean towards the Northeast (slant effect). The shadow of the minaret is also visible to its north-west (the sun is on the Southeast of the minaret at the time of the image recording). A row of small shops is visible on the image but the crowds are not yet thronging the place to watch the typical street theatre. The houses to the East of the Jemaa El Fna place are characteristic "patio" style houses of the medina. The shape of the patios is characteristic as illustrated on this figure on the right. The patio house has blind outside walls while inside walls have windows allowing the light to enter.

Street theatre on the Jemaa El Fna place.

Human activities on the Jemaa El Fna place at the evening.

The Medina

The surrounding wall of the Medina was built in 1126-1127, during to the Almoradive period. When this dynasty succumbed, in 1147 , monuments were destroyed for the greater part. Under the sovereigns Almohades ( 1147-1269 ), Marrakesh knew a new and unequalled prosperity. From 1147-1158, Abd the Mou'men made bring up, on the ruins of the almoradive foundations, the mosque of Koutoubia, among which the incomparable 77 metres minaret, the essential monument of the Moslem architecture, is one of the big marks of the townscape and the symbol of the town (see top left picture).

Ramparts.

His successors Abou Yacoub Youssef, and especially Yacoub Mansour were the real restorers of the capital; creating new districts and widening the urban surrounding wall, strengthening the kasba, with its surrounding wall of ramparts and its doors, its mosque, its palaces, its market, its hospital, its military exercise place and its gardens, assuring their influence on the environment by plantations and by works of artt.

Marrakesh exercised a considerable influence on the architecture of the Sahelian cities: mainly Djenné and Timbuktu.

Medina.

Medina.

Patio houses and labyrinth street network
are showed on this aerial photograph.