Marrakech is an explosion of colour, noise, scents and haggling that leaves no one indifferent. The 'Red City' of southern Morocco is probably the country's most famous destination and one of the most sensory cities in the world. Its walled medina, a World Heritage Site, is a maze of souks selling spices, leather, rugs, lamps and babouches, and its main square, Jemaa el-Fna, turns every evening into an open-air theatre of snake charmers, storytellers, Gnawa musicians and smoking food stalls.
But Marrakech isn't just chaos and bazaar. Behind the ochre earthen walls are some of the country's most beautiful palaces and gardens: the Bahia Palace and its tiled courtyards, the Saadian Tombs rediscovered in the 20th century, the Ben Youssef Madrasa with its stucco and latticework, the Almohad minaret of the Koutoubia and the serene Majorelle Garden, saved by Yves Saint Laurent. And just a few hours away lie the snowy High Atlas, the Berber valleys and the gateway to the desert.
This guide covers the essentials of Marrakech with a practical, honest eye. It tells you what to see and what each monument costs, how to get around without being overcharged for a taxi, and how to shop in the souks without falling into traps. It also covers the two key warnings for the trip. The first is HAGGLING, which here is the norm, not the exception. The second is FAKE GUIDES, who offer to show you round the medina 'for free' and then demand money or take you to shops where they earn a commission. With the right information, Marrakech goes from overwhelming to unforgettable.
Marrakech was founded around 1070 by the Almoravids, a Berber dynasty from the Sahara, and became the capital of an empire that stretched from North Africa to al-Andalus. From that era come the reddish earthen walls that still surround the medina and the system of underground channels (khettaras) that brought water from the Atlas. Under the Almohads, in the 12th century, the great minaret of the Koutoubia was built, the model for the Giralda in Seville. After centuries of ups and downs, Marrakech shone again in the 16th century under the Saadians, who built the lavish El Badi Palace and the Saadian Tombs. It shone once more in the 19th century under viziers such as the one who built the Bahia Palace. In 1912 Morocco became a French protectorate and the new town (Guéliz) was built next to the medina; the country regained its independence in 1956. The full history, with its dynasties and monuments, is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The Red City founded by the Almoravids at the foot of the Atlas, capital of empires and today the tourist heart of Morocco, alongside the Atlantic ports of Essaouira, the old Mogador of Jewish merchants and traders, and Agadir, the former Portuguese stronghold reborn after the earthquake.
Read the history of Marrakesh and the Atlantic coast →If you only have one day, take a guided tour on the first one: it sets up the rest of your trip and saves you a lot of walking. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have over 30 activities in Marrakech. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Three are below so you get the idea: tap any of them and they all open.
If you book from here we earn a commission and you pay no more. Prices and availability come from Civitatis.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Marrakech didn't exist until a desert people dreamed it up. In the mid-11th century, a confederation of Saharan Berber tribes, the Almoravids, came out of the western Sahara preaching a strict form of Islam and a holy war that, within a few decades, made them masters of a vast empire. Their leader, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, needed a capital on the Haouz plain, between the High Atlas mountains and the caravan routes that brought gold and slaves north from sub-Saharan Africa. Marrakech was founded there around 1070, and its name, which in the Berber language is thought to mean 'land of God' or 'quick passage', would in time give its name to the whole country: Morocco.
The Almoravids made Marrakech the heart of an empire that stretched from Senegal to the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. Called in by the taifa kings, they crossed the Strait and halted the Christian advance in al-Andalus after the Battle of Sagrajas (1086). The city filled with water and life: they built an ingenious system of underground channels, the khettaras, which carried meltwater from the Atlas down to the city and its orchards by gravity, and they planted the huge palm grove that still surrounds it. Of the Almoravid Ben Youssef mosque, little remains except the Qubba, a small ablutions pavilion. It is the only Almoravid building still standing in Marrakech and a gem of early Maghrebi art.
The splendour lasted a little under a century. In 1147 a new Berber wave, even more radical, stormed the city and brought the dynasty to an end. They were the Almohads, and under them Marrakech would enjoy its first great golden age.
The Almohads, followers of the reformer Ibn Tumart, conquered Marrakech in 1147 and kept it as the capital of an empire even larger than the Almoravids' own, one that united the whole of the Maghreb and al-Andalus under a single power for the last time. They destroyed much of what the Almoravids had built, considering it impure, but in return gave the city its most iconic monument: the Koutoubia mosque, built in the second half of the 12th century.
Its 77-metre minaret, built of pinkish sandstone and topped with golden spheres, is one of the masterpieces of Hispano-Maghrebi art and the direct model for the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. The three are 'sisters', the work of the same Almohad master builders. The Koutoubia fixed the skyline of Marrakech for good, and eight centuries later it is still the city's most recognisable symbol.
Under the Almohads, Marrakech was one of the great capitals of the Islamic world, with hospitals, libraries and gardens, and it drew scholars of the calibre of the philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and the physician Ibn Tufayl. But the empire began to crack after the Almohad defeat by the Christian kingdoms at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), which opened al-Andalus to the Reconquista. In 1269 another Berber dynasty, the Marinids, took Marrakech and moved the capital to Fez. Marrakech then entered a long decline and stayed in the background for more than two and a half centuries.
Marrakech's revival came in the 16th century with the Saadians, a dynasty of sharifs (descendants of the Prophet) from the Draa valley in the south. The Saadians led the resistance against Portuguese expansion on the Atlantic coast and, once they had reunified the country, restored Marrakech to its rank as imperial capital. Their great figure was Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur ('the Victorious' or 'the Golden'), who reigned from 1578 to 1603.
Al-Mansur came to the throne after the famous Battle of the Three Kings (Alcácer Quibir, 1578). King Sebastian of Portugal and two rival Moroccan claimants died in the battle, which left Portugal without an heir and at the mercy of the Spanish crown. With the gold from his expedition against the Songhai Empire, in the heart of Africa (where he conquered Timbuktu in 1591), al-Mansur paid for a lavish court and dazzling architecture. He built the El Badi Palace ('the Incomparable'), clad in Carrara marble, gold and onyx and one of the most luxurious palaces of its time. He also had the dynastic mausoleum, the Saadian Tombs, decorated with the sublime Hall of the Twelve Columns, where he himself lies.
The Saadian splendour was intense but short-lived. After al-Mansur's death, succession struggles and an epidemic weakened the dynasty, and by the mid-17th century power had passed to the Alaouites, the dynasty that still rules Morocco. The Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, who made Meknes his capital, stripped the El Badi Palace of its marble and materials, leaving the monumental ruins you can visit today. The Saadian Tombs, on the other hand, survived. Out of religious respect, Moulay Ismail had them walled up rather than destroyed, and they stayed hidden and forgotten for more than two centuries, until an aerial photograph led to their rediscovery and restoration in 1917.
Under the Alaouites, Marrakech went back and forth between periods as the capital and periods of neglect, but it remained one of the most important cities in the south and the gateway to the routes leading to the Atlas, the Sahara and the Berber world. The 19th century left its great palace behind: the Bahia Palace, begun in the 1860s by the grand vizier Si Moussa and lavishly enlarged by his son Ba Ahmed, the all-powerful chamberlain who effectively ran the country while the sultan was a minor. With its 150 rooms, courtyards and gardens, the Bahia bears witness to the wealth and power of those viziers.
In the early 20th century, Morocco became a prize coveted by the European powers. After years of pressure and diplomatic crises, the Treaty of Fez of 1912 set up a French protectorate over most of the country, with a northern zone under a Spanish protectorate. The French left the historic medina alone and built a new, European-style city beside it, the Guéliz district, with avenues, cafés and Art Deco architecture. In the south, real power lay with Pasha El Glaoui, a Berber lord who ruled Marrakech with an iron fist and enormous wealth. An ally of France and a fascinating, controversial figure of the period, he rubbed shoulders with European high society and with Churchill, who loved the city and its sunsets.
The protectorate lasted until 1956, when Morocco regained its independence and Sultan Mohammed V, whom the French had deposed and sent into exile, returned in triumph as king. El Glaoui, who had plotted against him, fell from grace and died that same year.
Independent Morocco turned Marrakech into its great showcase for tourism and culture. By the 1950s and 60s the city had already started to win over artists, writers and stars. Its riads and hotels welcomed everyone from Winston Churchill, who painted it, to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Yves Saint Laurent, who bought and saved the Jardin Majorelle and asked for his ashes to be scattered there. Filmmakers also came and found a ready-made film set in its light. The legendary La Mamounia hotel became the symbol of this cosmopolitan, glamorous Marrakech.
In 1985 UNESCO made the medina of Marrakech a World Heritage Site. In 2001 it recognised Jemaa el-Fna square as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity for its living tradition of storytellers, musicians and performers, a pioneering case of protecting intangible heritage. Since then the city has gone through a boom in tourism and restored riads that has made it one of the most visited destinations in Africa.
This growth has not come without wounds. In 2011 a terrorist attack on the Argana café, right on Jemaa el-Fna, killed seventeen people and hit the tourism sector hard. In September 2023 a powerful earthquake centred in the High Atlas, south of the city, killed thousands in the mountain villages and damaged part of the historic medina. The great monuments held up, though, and the city threw itself into rebuilding. Today Marrakech is still what it has been for almost a thousand years: a crossroads between desert and mountains, Africa and Europe, tradition and global tourism. It is a city of red earth that lights up every evening under the Koutoubia minaret, just as it did on the first day.
