Memories of Marrakesh

The heart of Marrakesh is centered on Place Djemâa El Fna, Place of the Dead, and the surrounding old city of the Medina. The square is the stage for a long-established ritual in which shifting circles of onlookers gather around groups of acrobats, drummers, pipe musicians, dancers, storytellers, and comedians.

The Medina, with its endless narrow streets, is a shopping haven, where you can find the finest rugs and slippers. The city's architectural attractions are immense, with the basins of the Agdal and Menara gardens, the delicate Granada-style carving of the Saadian Tombs, and, above all, the Koutoubia Minaret. Marrakesh is a city of history and culture, a trendy city, elected by the fashion world as the place to be in winter and spring, with unique Moroccan and international restaurants, trendy bars, casinos, and a nightlife.

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The square has become the heart of Marrakesh. Jerome and Jean Tharaud once said "the soul of the South is here, in the groups of the onlookers who, from morning to night, gather and disperse around the street performers with the fluidity of smoke." At dusk, this square fills with jugglers and story tellers reminiscent of the griots of the Southern Sahara, Berbers who have come down from the mountains, men from the desert and fellahs from the plain deeply engrossed in their songs and dances performed with tame snakes. At this time of day, when the peaks of the distant Atlas Mountains catch the last of the sunlight, the atmosphere is disquieting. This spellbinding spectacle will encourage you to linger on the terraces of the numerous surrounding cafés. In the mornings, this vast square, located on the edge of the souk district and bordered by shops and workshops, is crowded with fruit and spice sellers, guerrab with their leather water bottles and metal drinking cups, basket sellers, ironmongers and barbers. In the afternoons come the Gnaoua dancers descended from former Guinean slaves, musicians, storytellers, snake charmers and entertainers with performing monkeys. Before starting their performance, they establish their halqa (imaginary circle blessed by a saint).

All around the square are tea houses offering mint tea and local sweets, like the filo pastry filled with mixed nuts.

For the adventurous, a favourite amongst the Moroccans is goat's brain, broiled in lamb stock and eaten with your fingers! It's chewy, like gum, and not at all as awful as I'd imagined. Another delicacy here are the local escargots, not the garden variety or the fancy French ones, but simply boiled in salt water and spiced with some herbs. These are tiny snails that are delicate and tender-and the soup is especially delicious, a must-try!

A five-minute walk from the square is Marrakesh's highest minaret from which the muezzin calls for prayer three times a day.

Designed initially as a resort where the sultans could escape the scorching summer heat, it was rebuilt for Sultan Adu Rahman in the 19th century, for his other, more risqué misadventures. Complete with a fruit orchard, date palm plantation, and olive grove, it is a place to take a breather and time off to smell the flowers.

The Menara Gardens cover an area of about 250 acres. In the middle of the park is a large lake, which dates from the 12th century and is fed by a network of irrigation channels flowing from a nearby basin.

And floating on the water's edge is the Sultan's small, reddish-coloured pavilion. Offering a breathtaking sight mirrored on the serene lake, especially in the evenings, as it catches the golden rays of the setting sun, it looks like the pavilion is set ablaze.

The building was used by the Sultan for his romantic rendezvous. And it was rumoured that he used to throw his companion of the previous night into the lake at dawn. The young wooing Moroccan couples usually make their way to the park just before it closes, at around 5pm, for a stroll around the menza. Being a Muslim country, only married couples can be seen holding hands.

The gardens are open to the public from around 9am for visitors who sometimes like to jog in the gardens. And in the evenings, you will find some hawkers peddling the local sweets made of sugar and nuts.

The minaret of the mosque can be seen from the Place Djemaa el Fna. A symbol of the Berber city and a central landmark, it rises 252 feet into the sky, towers over the town and its palm groves, and stands like a sentinel at the gates of the Sahara. The five-to-one ratio between the height and width of the minaret confers a perfect harmony on the tower. A masterpiece of Hispano-Moresque art, it looks very similar to the Giralda of Seville. Its pink stone walls are decorated with festooned arches, painted floral motifs, and carved tracery. Only a few fragments remain of the blue, turquoise, and white frieze that once adorned the top of the minaret. The first of the four copper balls atop the lantern is so small that it is invisible from the ground, the second, 6.5 feet in diameter, is huge, whilst the third and fourth are respectively half and three-fourths the size of the second. Our guide tells us a curious tale of the balls being made from some gold jewellery belonging to the wife of Yacoub el Mansour, its architect, who is said to have offered the pieces in atonement for having broken the fast of Ramadan for several hours. The balance of the balls is supposedly maintained by the influence of the planets.

Located not far from the El Badi Palace is the beautiful and opulent Dar La Bahia. In the late 19th century, Ba Ahmed, grand vizier to the sultans Moulay Hassan and Moulay Abd el Aziz, ordered this magnificent palace to be built. The palace, standing in a 2-acre garden, is a haphazard arrangement of secret luxury apartments opening on to inner courtyards. For 7 years around a thousand craftsmen from the Fez region worked on the palace, using the same motifs and materials inside as the architects had used on the outside of the building. Thus the carved wood, plaster, and stucco of the facade are continued in the interior decoration. The master of works, seriously hampered by his weight and small stature, had the palace built on one level. The only sections of the Dar el Bahia open to the public are the apartments of the sultan’s favourite concubine, the council chamber, with its tiled walls and illuminated cedar wood ceiling, the great central courtyard, paved with marble and decorated with zellige, and fountains. The courtyards, planted with flowers, were reserved for the sultan’s five wives and 24 concubines. During the French protectorate, the palace was the residence of General Lyautey, France’s first resident general.