Insight Guides - Explore Marrakech: The best routes around the city

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2014 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Architecture

Admire the 12th-century minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque ().

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Arts and crafts

Explore the citys history at the Museum of Marrakech ().

Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications

Children

As well as the evening entertainment on the Jemaa el Fna ().

Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications

Fabulous views

Get a birds-eye view of the Jemaa el Fna ().

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Parks and gardens

Marrakech is renowned for its gardens, from the great Sultanic garden of the Menara ().

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Shoppers

Spreading north of the Jemaa el Fna are Marrakechs legendary souks ().

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Sporting activities

Go horse-riding or play golf in the Palmeraie ().

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Stress relief

Loosen up with a massage and scrub in the sumptuous spas and hammams of Marrakech ().

Alamy

Mosaic detail

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Explore Marrakech

Despite the citys continuing modernisation and ever-growing numbers of tourists, Marrakech still offers a unique and authentically Moroccan experience, set between mountain and desert at the cultural crossroads of Africa and Arabia.

With all that Marrakech has to offer, its difficult not to fall for the place. Accessible yet exotic, and enjoying year-round sunshine, its also the gateway to some of Moroccos most fascinating areas, including the Atlas mountains, and has both snowy mountain peaks and Saharan sands within easy striking distance.

Place des Epices

Clay Perry/Apa Publications

Development

Set on the Haouz Plain beneath the peaks of the High Atlas Mountains, Marrakech spreads red and low amid palms and olive groves. The city was founded by the Almoravids, a Berber dynasty, in 1060, at the crossroads of intercontinental trade routes linking sea and desert. For merchants and travellers it was the first great city north of the Sahara.

The Red City

The adobe walls that the Almoravids built to enclose their settlement still form the basis of todays impressive ramparts. Extending for some 16km (10 miles) and entered by a dozen gates (babs) , they glow in the afternoon sun, earning Marrakech the epithet the Red City.

Inside the walls is the Medina (old town), a warren of narrow, tightly packed alleyways and derbs (dead ends). At the heart of the medina is the great Jemaa el Fna, a large irregular-shaped square ringed by cafs and filled nightly with an extraordinary cast of snake-charmers, story-tellers, street performers, acrobats, water-sellers and Gnaoua musicians whose incessant drumming fills the night air with the hynoptic rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa.