1. What to do in the city
**Jemaa el-Fna square.** The square has been the centre of the medina since the city was founded in the 11th century. By day there are juice stalls, henna artists, and snake charmers. In the evening, food stalls are set up, with musicians, acrobats, and storytellers. UNESCO recognised the square in 2001 as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity, inscribed in 2008. The square is a public space: you pay only for what you eat, drink, or give to performers.
**The souks.** North of the square, Souk Semmarine is the main covered lane. From it branch souks by trade: leather, metal, wood, spices, carpets, lanterns, babouches. Prices are discussed in the souks: that is the custom, and it is worth taking time to compare before buying.
**The Koutoubia, from outside.** The 12th-century minaret is the city's landmark, visible from far away. The mosque is a place of prayer: non-Muslims do not enter it, but the outside and the gardens around it can be seen from the square and the nearby streets.
**Bahia Palace.** Built for the most part in the late 19th century, the palace shows courtyards, gardens, and rooms decorated with wood, plaster, ceramics, and marble. It is visited on foot, in the medina, south of the square.
**The Saadian Tombs.** In the Kasbah, near the Moulay El Yazid Mosque, the tombs of the Saadian dynasty were rediscovered in 1917. Their chambers are decorated with zellige tiles, carved stucco, and marble.
**Ben Youssef Madrasa.** The first school on this site dates from the 14th century, under the Marinids. The present building is for the most part the work of the Saadians, rebuilt in the 1560s and completed in 1564–1565. It was the largest madrasa in the Maghreb, with student cells around a courtyard with a central basin. The school closed in 1960, and the building reopened to the public as a monument in 1982, after a restoration completed in 2022.
**Gardens.** The Majorelle Garden, in Guéliz, was created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years. Opened to the public in 1947, it was bought in 1980 by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, who restored it. The villa houses the Berber Museum, and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum opened next door in 2017. The Menara Gardens, west of the city, are an olive grove around a large pool. In the middle of the souks, Le Jardin Secret is a restored garden, quieter than the lanes around it.
**Rest and learning.** The hammam is a traditional steam bath, with black soap and a kessa scrub glove, found in the medina as well as in some riads. Cooking classes take place in medina houses: salads, a tagine, and mint tea are prepared, after a visit to the market. Leather and babouche workshops also exist in the medina.
**A day out of the city.** The Ourika Valley, in the High Atlas foothills, leads to Setti Fatma, whose waterfalls are reached on foot along a stony path: good shoes are needed. Imlil is the starting point for walks in the High Atlas, at the foot of Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa at 4,167 metres. The Ouzoud waterfalls, surrounded by olive trees, are another full-day trip. Essaouira, on the Atlantic coast, offers a different face: a medina facing the sea, and fresh fish. The Agafay Desert, near the city, is a stony desert, not dunes: the real Sahara is not a day trip from Marrakech.