Marrakech – ‘the Red City’ and capital of the Great South – is arguably the most exotic, mysterious and enchanting place this close to Europe. Its thousand-year history is about as rich as it is possible to be with an eclectic cast of characters, from sultans and slave-traders to colonialists, rock stars and artistic icons.
In the 1960s and ’70s, Marrakech lured hippies, playboys, rich expats and the fashion elite. Today, Marrakech is experiencing its latest renaissance. With spectacular riads in the ancient medina that are straight out of A Thousand and One Nights; atmospheric imperial palaces and mysterious ancient ruins; kaleidoscopically colourful souks; a fabulous array of restaurants, bars, cafés and art galleries in the Ville Nouvelle (New Town); tranquil villa retreats; some of the best boutique five-star hotels in the world and a wealth of adventures to be had virtually on its doorstep, this desert city at the crossroad of cultures has reinvented itself yet again as a hip, romantic and adventurous getaway.
Location, Location, Location
Marrakech owes its existence, its character and its new-found success to its location. Sitting at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains and at the southern end of the lush Moroccan plains, it came into being as a market town where mountain Berbers and Arabs from the plains came to trade with the trans-Saharan caravan merchants.
The city’s souks were packed with ivory, senna, ebony and slaves from beyond the Sahara, rugs and jewellery from the mountains and glass, spun cottons, teapots and weapons from the north. The new tourist developments play to one of the city’s strengths: its climate. Although the high summers can be blisteringly hot, winters are usually mild and often sunny, spring and autumn invariably blissful. Add to that the exoticism of the souks and the lure of the nearby snow-capped mountains, visible from medina rooftops, and it is easy to see why so many people are enchanted by Marrakech. The city is home to well over one million people, but unofficially the number is thought to be closer to two million, one third of whom are members of several Berber tribes originally from the Rif and Atlas mountains.
Yet as well as a playground for foreign visitors, Marrakech remains a vibrant Moroccan city and one that punches above its weight. It may no longer be the capital, as it once was – Rabat on the Atlantic coast has that honour – but for a long time it has been the country’s most famous city. Eighteenth- and early 19th-century Europeans called the city and the country by the same name, just as they did Algiers and Algeria, Tunis and Tunisia: in many ways, Marrakech remains synonymous with Morocco.
The Heart of the Matter
The city is divided into several distinct districts, the best-known being the medina – the old city inside the walls, which dates from 1070. Until little more than a century ago the miles of rust-red, mudbrick walls enclosed the entire city. Behind the series of gates, some of them seemingly straight out of fairy tales, lies a town sub-divided by interior walls and gates into distinct districts: one for the royal palaces, one – the Mellah – for the Jews, one for the souks and so on.
The medina remains the main attraction. It is a place where narrow, winding alleys unite communities around the pillars of the mosque, the school, the bakery, the hammam and the clusters of courtyard houses known as riads. The medina has few large hotels (with the sole exception of the world-famous Mamounia, built just inside the Bab Jdid, the New Gate), but what it does have are more than 800 riads converted and available to rent, by the room or in their entirety, by visitors.
Garden city
From its foundation, Marrakech was a city of gardens. A growing population has meant that there are now few public green spaces inside the medina, but many riads have fig, palm or orange trees in their courtyards. Marrakech beyond the walls is still very green in places such as Hivernage, the Palmeraie and the Cyber Parc, Agdal and Majorelle Gardens.
In spite of the influx of visitors, the medina has retained much of the character and interest that led to it being inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage list in 1985. In particular, it has preserved its unique centrepiece: the Jemaa el-Fna, a triangular space beside the souks. By day, ‘La Place’, as it is known locally, serves nothing more exciting than juice from Souss oranges and a few herbal medicines. At night, however, it is completely transformed. Part of the space is devoted to food stalls, where foreigners rub shoulders with local people to sample couscous, fish, sheep’s head, snails and a long list of other local delicacies. The rest is taken up by entertainers, among them sufi musicians, magicians, snake charmers, storytellers and many others who fancy their chances of attracting a ring of spectators around them.
Majorelle Garden
Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications
New Town Marrakech
The French were the first to build seriously outside the walls, beginning soon after 1912 when Morocco was colonised. Their Ville Nouvelle, which takes its name, Guéliz, from a small hill nearby, was laid out as a suburb of broad leafy avenues and large detached houses. It remains distinct from the medina, although it is no longer as sedate as it once was (the exception being the garden area known as Hivernage, which still has some fabulous early 20th-century villas). Other parts of Guéliz, particularly around the central artery of Avenue Mohammed V, are super-swanky and are the place to find the city’s most elegant boutiques, bars and restaurants. Here, too, is one of Marrakech’s most popular sights, the house and garden created in the 1920s by French painter Jacques Majorelle, who brilliantly combined local greens with a shade of cobalt paint now known as Majorelle blue. Twenty years ago you would have been laughed at for wanting to live in the Palmeraie, but the area of palm groves beyond the French-built new town has now become home to some of the city’s wealthiest residents and some of its most beautiful hotels. A road snakes through the palm groves off the main Marrakech–Fez road, and the Palmeraie circuit, although no longer as calm as it once was, still runs through an area of great beauty.
The Marrakech Brand
It had been coming for a few years, but when the Moroccan government paved the way for budget flights from Europe and international-brand clubs opened their doors, it was clear that Marrakech had arrived as a key destination on the global party circuit. Following on from Ibiza and St-Tropez, it has reinvented itself as the playground for wealthy Europeans, where billionaires and the slightly less well-off come to have fun.
King Mohammed VI has played a key role in recreating Marrakech, making it the centrepiece of an ambitious plan to increase tourism revenue. This has involved more than opening the skies to numerous airlines and promoting nightclubs and new hotels. Marrakech now also has beautifully restored public buildings, a lively arts and cultural scene and a growing market for upscale products, many of which find their way into Western luxury stores. The Marrakech International Film Festival grows in stature each year and several fledgling literary, art and music festivals have begun to attract attention. All this provides entertainment for visitors who want even more than stunning landscapes, extraordinary architecture, a wonderful climate and a welcome that goes far beyond a glass of sweet mint tea.
Out of Town
Many visitors who choose to stay in the medina find themselves looking for distraction beyond the confines of the city’s red walls. Happily, it is easy to get out of town and there are plenty of entertainments nearby, from large, luxurious swimming pools to country club-style retreats tucked away in rose gardens. All this, and the glory of the High Atlas mountains just a short drive away, makes Marrakech the perfect place for a holiday packed with contrasts.