As befits a Muslim country, Morocco’s architecture is dominated by Islamic religious buildings, most particularly mosques, but also zaouias (the shrines of local saints) and medersas (religious schools). Many features of Moroccan architecture – such as the familiar pointed horseshoe arches of doorways and city gates – come from the Middle East and arrived with the Arabs. Though the style has been refined, and decorative details added over the centuries, the country’s architectural traditions have changed little since then. The colonial period did, however, make its mark, and there are some particularly fine examples of Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles to be found, though they are confined to the French-built Villes Nouvelles, leaving the traditional Medinas often remarkably untouched.
As far as we can tell from their only surviving building of note – the Koubba Ba’adiyn in Marrakesh – it was the Almoravids who first used many of the decorative elements that have become so typical of the country’s architecture, including merlons (battlement-like castellations), a ribbed dome, and stylized plant-inspired designs resembling pine cones and palm fronds. The Almohads introduced the classic Moroccan square minaret, as seen in the Koutoubia at Marrakesh, the Hassan Tower in Rabat, and the Giralda at Seville in Spain. Architectural styles were refined but not radically altered under the Merenids and the Saadians, who brought in techniques of zellij tilework and carved stucco and cedar wood.
The next big change came with the colonial period, when European styles – and the Europeanized North African style known as Mauresque – began to appear in the Villes Nouvelles of larger cities, most notably in Casablanca. Art Nouveau made a major impact on the Spanish enclave of Melilla, and Art Deco similarly dominates the former Spanish enclave of Sidi Ifni, as well as having had a major impact on downtown Casa.
Concrete-and-glass modern architecture has not made many inroads in Morocco, though you’ll see it on the outskirts of Casablanca if you’re coming in from the south. Nor has post-World War II European architecture especially impressed Moroccans – one of Le Corbusier’s brutalist blocks was demolished in the centre of Meknes in 2004 without much comment. Morocco’s most impressive modern building, the Mosquée Hassan II in Casablanca, was built using completely traditional styles and techniques.
Mosques follow the same basic plan regardless of their age or size. All mosques face Mecca, the birthplace of Islam and the direction in which all Muslims pray. This direction is indicated by an alcove called the mihrab, set in the Mecca-facing qibla wall. Next to the mihrab in larger mosques is a pulpit, usually wooden, called the minbar. Larger mosques will also have a courtyard, often with a fountain for ablutions, but the qibla end is taken up by a covered prayer hall. The minaret is a tower from which, back in the day, the muezzin would climb to call the faithful to prayer. Moroccan mosques invariably have only one minaret, and since the days of the Almohads in the twelfth century, almost all Moroccan minarets have been square in shape, with a ratio of 5:1 height to width.
A zaouia is a shrine or Sufi retreat built around the tomb of a marabout, or Islamic saint. It is typically a small, whitewashed building with a small dome or koubba, often found among the ordinary tombs in a graveyard. A larger zaouia may have a prayer hall attached, and function like a mosque. It will certainly have a mihrab, though not usually a minaret.
Morocco’s most important mosque architecture includes the Koutoubia in Marrakesh, the Kairaouine Mosque and the Zaouia of Moulay Idriss in Fez, the Hassan Tower in Rabat, and the Mosquée Hassan II in Casablanca. Non-Muslims, unfortunately, are not allowed inside most mosques.
A medersa (or madrasa) is a religious school where students come to study Islam, and unlike mosques, medersas are open to non-Muslims. Typically they consist of a large courtyard, with rooms around it for teaching, and rooms upstairs where the students sleep. The medersas of Fez in particular, such as Bou Inania and the Attarin, are richly decorated with carved stucco and cedar wood, and zellij mosaic tilework. Because Islam is suspicious of representational art (lest it lead to idol worship), religious buildings such as medersas are decorated with geometric designs and calligraphy, the latter almost always consisting of quotations from the Koran. Other architecturally interesting medersas include the Abou el Hassan in Salé, and the Ben Youssef in Marrakesh.
People’s houses in Morocco do not look outward, like a Western home, but rather inward, to an enclosed patio, an arrangement that guards privacy, particularly for women, who traditionally observed purdah and did not allow men outside the family to see them. Rooms are arranged around the patio, usually on two floors with a roof terrace. At one time, most homes would have had a well in the middle of the patio to supply drinking water. A grand house or mansion might have a whole garden in the patio, typically with orange trees, and sometimes a second patio too. The ceilings would be wooden and often beautifully painted.
The very best way to take in Moroccan domestic architecture is to stay in an old riad, particularly in a city such as Marrakesh or Fez. Second best is to visit one of the palatial restaurants in those two cities. In Marrakesh, the Bahia Palace and Dar el Glaoui are also worth a visit.
A kasbah can be a walled residential district (as in Fez), or the citadel of a walled city (as in Tangier and Marrakesh), but in southern Morocco, most impressively in Telouet, Tamdaght and the Skoura Oasis, a kasbah is a fortified citadel, something like a castle, where everyone in a village could take refuge in times of trouble. Built of mud-bricks, these kasbahs are rectangular structures with turrets at each corner, usually decorated with Berber motifs.