Marrakesh & Central مراكش ووسط المغرب

Includes  Why Go? ...... 47 Marrakesh is most people’s first taste of Morocco and what Ouirgane ...... 82 an introduction it is. Somewhere between the donkey-cart The High Atlas ...... 83 swerving souq action, the tilework and marble monument Toubkal National overload, and the hundredth time you find yourself lost Park ...... 100 amid the medina’s doodling alleyways, this great city of the Maghreb will work its magic on you. But when you’ve Tizi n’Test ...... 109 finally found your way out of the old city, Marrakesh is a The Southern Oases. 109 jumping-off point to some of Morocco’s most stunning land- Drâa Valley ...... 118 scapes, set against the soaring peaks of the . Dadès Valley Hike along craggy clifftops to tiny Berber villages in & The Gorges ...... 128 the High Atlas, or amid orchards and wind-whittled rock Ziz Valley formations inside the lush Dadès Gorge. Then explore the & The Tafilalt ...... 142 palm-studded Drâa Valley and its slumping mudbrick kas- to Zagora. . . . 150 bahs and ksour on your way east to the Sahara. Sitting atop a sculpted sand dune at sunrise is the perfect orange-hued curtain call to this extraordinary region. Best Places to Eat ¨¨Amal Center (p74) ¨¨Al Fassia (p75) When to Go ¨¨Douyria (p116) Marrakesh ¨¨Chez Pierre (p137) °C/°F Te mp Rainfall inches/mm 40/104 8/200 ¨¨Dar Anika (p74)

30/86 6/150

Best Places to 20/68 4/100 Sleep 10/50 2/50

¨¨Riad Azoulay (p70) 0/32 0 J FDM A M J J A S O N ¨¨L’Ma Lodge (p130) ¨¨Tizouit (p85) Mar–Apr Moun- Marrakesh when Oct–Nov Dune es- tains thaw, wild- prices jump. capades beckon. ¨¨Maison Merzouga (p148) flowers bloom. May–Jun Pull on Prime desert ¨¨Riad Bledna (p71) Though skip your hiking boots time with gentle Easter holidays in and hit the High breezes and dates ¨¨Riad Dar Sofian (p123) Atlas trails. galore. Marrakesh & Central Morocco MarrakeshMARRAKESH 47

------(Jewish (Jewish fondouqs ville nouvel ville mellah (covered markets),rebuilt Kout a (covered After 1912, when Morocco was handed to After1912, when Morocco After independence in 1956, Marrakesh Afterindependence in 1956, Marrakesh The crumbled in the 17th Saadian dynasty Almohad warriors stormed the city in stormed warriors Almohad city the fiddle second After centuries of playing (new town) outside of Marrakesh’s city (new Marrakesh’s of outside town) in the 1960s and ’70s, and visits by the Led and Rolling Stones, Beatles Zeppelin 1990s the In pri star power. the city gave into converted mansions were medina vate justB&Bs, low-costas delivered airlines riad doors. to brass-studded weekenders control. Those who prevailed built extrava gant riads, though much of the population hand to mouth in crowded lived (rooming houses). Thami protectorate, el-Glaouithe French While was installed as pasha of Marrakesh. terrorising southern Mo to work he went and Spanish colonists were rocco, French a busy building themselves le walls. was left and resumed without a clear role – be its fallback career as a caravanserai success. breakaway coming the nation’s mystique Roving hippies built the city’s ans established their dynasty in the city. in the city. ans established their dynasty of lucrative crux as the thrived Marrakesh centre for a trading and routes, sugar-trade Christiansprotecteda and quarter) established in 1558. Ahmed were ed-Dahbi (the Victorious andal-Mansour with gold the Badi Palace Golden) paved in the gilded grave and took opulence to the Saadian Tombs. to for the Alawites the way paving century, Ismail leader Moulay seize the reins. Alawite and moved to Marrakesh, preferred Meknès his headquarters there – though not before roleits of Stripped Palace. Badi the looting entered its as the imperial base, Marrakesh period with big guns vying for Wild West securing Almoravid control of Andalucia. of control securing Almoravid of dirt, once just patch a became Marrakesh, that empire centre of an operational the limits. city stretched to Barcelona’s right up left and and the only the plumbing 1147 intact.Almohad ruler Ba’adiyn Koubba remodelled Marrakesh al-Mansour Yacoub with a fortified gardens, kasbah, glorious qissaria (Bab Agnaou). triumphal gate oubia and a lostBut the Almohads to their showpiece royal at in 1269, who turned the Merenids and Fez. tention to Meknès it’s regained Marrakesh rule, Merenid under the Saadi when crown in the 16th century, ------khet مراكش (leather babouches (rammed earth) (rammed ramparts, is pisé (underground irrigation system) and (underground irrigation At the age of almost 80, Youssef ben almostof Youssef 80, age the At Almoravid Berber leader Youssef ben Berber leader Youssef Almoravid More than anywhere else in Morocco, this else in Morocco, than anywhere More Rapid growth though, has brought its Raised, razed, and then raised again; al and then raised Raised, razed, tara pink mudbrick architecture.signature campaignssuccessful launched Tachfine is where tradition and modernity merge. modernity and tradition where is and enchant. will dazzle, frazzle Marrakesh tassle-toed your on Put of tourism-driven economy. But this is a citya is this But economy. tourism-driven of abundant that refuses sit stillto that it’s and for energy will help steer Marrakesh that ward. attendant problems. Congestion, pollution Congestion, problems. attendant become have and creeping urbanisation eco issues while the recent environmental nomic downturn has exposed the fragility ists palace and mansion frippery goggling at one percenters of pastwhere the centuries once lived. side a contemporary arts brings scene that its door. to and design initiatives festivals Chi-chi boutiques sit next to bazaar-stalls of old have traders within the souqs, and the for groups of tour long since been swapped most 1000 years after its founding, Morocco’s aftermost 1000 years its founding, Morocco’s its cara Today to evolve. continues Red City along culture lay vanserai and craft heritage web is the vast square of Djemaa el-Fna, Djemaa of square vast the is web night every carnival night and where it’s and slapstick actingmusicians, acrobats, frenetic pulse. city’s troupes tap into the old where sheep carcasses swing from hooks carcasses swing from where sheep and squig lamps, next door to twinkling gling ochre-dusted lanes lead to nowhere. The artery main this labyrinthine into a show-stopping muddle of crowded souqs show-stoppinga crowded of muddle Tachfine and his savvy wife Zeinab recog and his savvy Tachfine potential, and built ram nised its strategic parts around the encampment in AD 1062. established the city’s The Almoravids swept through the south of Morocco, demol Morocco, through the south of swept ishing opponents as they rode north. They swatha desolate pitched their campsite on become Marrakesh. would of land that History The tribe founded the Al Berber Sanhaja the 11th in dynasty moravid centuryand slippers) and dive right in. slippers) and dive POP 1,323,005 to be slapped.senses your for Prepare pow within medina, wrapped Marrakesh’s der-pink MARRAKESH