Visiting Marrakech

Morocco Travel Diary

Marrakech

Summer 2008

My first time in Morocco, a country that I knew only from geography classes and that fascinated me due to a Brazilian series called "El Clon".

My first step I did on the moroccan land it was in Casablanca airport. After a long flight with one stop in Paris, in the most crowded and mad place I have ever seen in my life - Charles De Gaulle airport, I finally arrived in Casablanca.

28 Celsius degrees and 81% air humidity...hard for a beginner. That was the moment when I realised how important is humidity in weather forecasts.

A friend took me with his car to the bus station. Bus station in Morocco is an experience for a tourist. From the moment I entered in there I felt that arabic is not an easy language. Hundreds of voices attacked my ears. Prices, bus numbers, city names, special offers, in all the languages they knew, just to convince me to get in the bus. (the bus ticket Casablanca to Marrakech costs 70 dirhams = 7 euro). But all in all I was lucky. Why? Because my friend was a Moroccan and he was of great help for me during all my vacation.

In 4 hours or less here I am in the "Red City", the famous Marrakech.
For me I loved this city from the first moment. Warm orange lights in the streets, beautiful gardens, exotic palms, so many green places and colorful flowers and so so many tourists from all over the world in this old but still fresh imperial city.

Our accommodation was in a rented apartment, spacious with 3 rooms, balcony, in a building with reception downstairs and it costed us about 300 euro for 2 weeks.
After a good night sleep we started to plan our visit using Marrakech touristic map.

First option: Djamaa El Fna

The biggest square in Marrakech, the heart of the city.
Music, drums, rythms that can put you in trance, apes (one of the apes jumped in my arms attracted by my necklace), water sellers in colourful costumes with traditional leather water-bags and brass cups, snake charmers who will pose for photographs for tourists, Moroccan women that make for you henna tattoo, (but you have to be very careful because real natural henna has red color, not black....if they want to make tattoo with black henna you have to know that it is chemical and it might burn or affect your skin), dozens of stalls with fresh oranges inviting you to a big cup of vitamins juice, street restaurants, lots of flavours from spices used in traditional Moroccan food, sugarcane juice (very healthy - used especially for kidney stones - and delicious when is fresh and well done),

horses and carriages waiting for tourists to take a tour, bazaars, many traditional clothes markets and many tourists from all over the world, all these making a colorful and exotic painting, everything seemed like drawn from a fairy tale.

So, Djamaa El Fna - a heart forever young and restless of Marrakech.

Second place we visited was Bahia Palace
intended to be the greatest palace of its time, its name means 'brilliance'.

A funny story happened here and this can be also a tip for tourists.
In the day when we planned to visit Bahia Palace it was free entrance for Moroccan citizens and because I was dressed in Moroccan clothes and my physiognomy is aproached to a native Moroccan, I was considered as being a Moroccan citizen also, so I was invited to visit the place for free......Shukran.

When I entered in Bahia domain, the first thing I liked there were the gardens. So green and so beautiful, orange trees, roses and other plants that I don't know their names but that look awsome.

We tried to follow a group of tourists that had a guide and in this way to hear some of his explanations regarding the palace. One interesting thing it was about the RIADS, because in Marrakesh everybody says that he has a riad to rent for you. So, the guide explained that a riad is a house that has an interior garden with a fountain. And only that is an authentic riad. Palace Bahia is a Riad.

When you enter in that palace you don't know from where to start taking pictures. There are so many details and so many incredible paintings that you can't take your eyes from ceilings, walls, floors, doors, glazed ceramic tiles, carved and painted woodworks. So many fascinating details, a real decorative art. The rooms are opening onto courtyards.
The palace is divided in 4 sides. Each side for each of concubines.

Koutoubia Mosque

In front of Djamaa El Fna entrance there's Koutoubia mosque, the largest in Marrakech.
The tower has 69 m height and according to legend, the globes were originally made of pure gold, and there were once supposed to have been only three globes.

The fourth globe was donated by the wife of Yacoub el-Mansour as compensation for her failure to keep the fast for one day during the month of Ramadan. She had her golden jewelry melted down to flab the fourth globe.

The minaret of the Koutoubia was the model for the minaret of the Giralda mosque in Seville which in its turn has influenced thousands of church towers in Spain and Eastern Europe.





The park surounding the mosque is impressive by its green. I could not imagine so much green in Morocco. By the way, the park has also free wireless internet, at least this is what they wrote on a board.














Menara gardens

When we went to Menara gardens the weather was so hot. The temperature in the street was 40 degrees. We took a taxi to the gates of Menara. The distance between the gates and the lake it seemed to me soooooooo longggg and without end. I just wanted to go back to taxi because the weather was killing me. But eventually I made the tour of the garden.

"The Menara gardens are located to the west of Marrakech, Morocco, at the gates of the Atlas mountains. They were built in the 12th century by the Almohad ruler Abd al-Mu'min.

The name menara derives from the pavillon with its small green pyramid roof (menzeh). The pavilion was built during the 16th century Saadi dynasty and renovated in 1869 by sultan Abderrahmane of Morocco, who used to stay here in summertime.



The pavilion and basin (an artificial lake) are surrounded by orchards and olive groves. The intention of the basin was to irrigate the surrounding gardens and orchards using a sophisticated system of underground channels called a qanat. The basin is supplied with water thanks to an old hydraulic system which conveys water from the mountains located 30 km approximately away from Marrakech. "

There's something that I couldn't explain to myself about Menara. In all the pictures from internet I could notice in the background of the pavilion, standing the Atlas mountains. But when I was there, in real, I have seen no mountains. Perphaps there's an explanation.....

Someone told me that in the night is very beautiful to go there, to see the sunset and also sometimes they organize shows with music, dancing.

All in all the place has its charm, maybe next time I will enjoy more.

Majorelle Garden - amazing place

For this I have no words to describe. You definitely have to see this.
"The garden was made in the 1920s by the French painter Jacques Majorelle, with marble pools, raised pathways, banana trees, groves of bamboo, coconut palms and bougainvilleas. Perhaps unsuprisingly as the garden was designed by a painter, the garden is composed and coloured like a painting.


Many of the built features were painted in a dark blue ('Majorelle Blue') which works very well with the soil, climate and plants. In fact, Majorelle's garden rather than his paintings was his masterpiece. Water is an important feature of the garden - there are channels, lily-filled ponds and fountains. Majorelle was an avid plant collector.

After years of neglect, the garden was then taken over and restored by the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge.

Saadian Tombs

From Djamma El Fna you can follow the Rue Bab Agnaou till you find the Kasbah Mosque and then the route to the tombs is well signposted.

The route to the tombs is interesting while you walk through narrow streets, with riads (more or less riads) on both sides.
Sellers are all along this street. Babouch, scarfs, djellabas, kaftan, veils, khol, cosmetic products made from roses, almonds, argan and so so many others. You will not get bored not even a second.

When I crossed the courtyard I was again impressed by the garden. The rooms that shelter the tombs they have very detailed designing. Your photo or video camera will have a lot of work to do again.
The most significant chamber in the tombs is the Hall of Twelve Columns. Here rests the Sultan Ahmed el Mansour and his entire family. This chamber is complete with vaulted roof, columns of Italian marble, beautifully decorated cedar doors and carved wooden screens. Inside the inner mausoleum lies Mohammed esh Sheikh, founder of the Saadian dynasty, as well as the tomb of the Sultan's mother.










One can only wonder how much the Saadian Tombs would have cost to construct today. With beauty, detail and luxury incorporated in every room, from the floor to the ceiling, it is not hard to see why these tombs have become one of the most visited attractions in Morocco.