Marrakesh

Marrakesh is the capital of the Marrakesh-Safi region, which, besides the prefecture of Marrakesh, comprises the provinces of Al Haouz, Chichaoua, El Kelâa des Sraghna, Essaouira, Rehamna, Safi and Youssoufia.¹ In the 2024 census the municipality of Marrakesh had 1,002,697 inhabitants and the prefecture as a whole 1,571,580.² The city's weather station lies at an altitude of 464 metres; the long-term average there is 221 millimetres of precipitation a year.³

Marrakesh was founded between 1070 and 1072 by the Almoravids, who ruled from 1056 to 1147; their successors, the Almohads, made the city their capital until 1269.⁴ For a long time it was a political, economic and cultural centre of the western Islamic world, with an influence reaching as far as al-Andalus.⁵ The Moroccan empire was named after the city, and Fez el-Jdid, the new town of the Marinids, follows the older urban model of Marrakesh in UNESCO's assessment.⁶

The medina has been on the World Heritage List since 1985 under criteria i, ii, iv and v; the inscribed area covers 1,107 hectares.⁷ The old town itself occupies around 700 hectares and is bounded by the original city walls and their gates.⁸ Within them lie lanes, houses, souks and fondouks; the protected surroundings include the Agdal and Menara gardens and the palm grove, whose layout is attributed to the Almoravids.⁹

The city's landmark is the Koutoubia Mosque with its 77-metre minaret.¹⁰ The Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min founded the mosque in 1147 and had it completely rebuilt around 1158; the minaret was probably completed around 1195.¹¹ Its name comes from the Arabic word for booksellers, who plied their trade in the neighbouring souk.¹²

Jemaa el-Fna square lies at the entrance to the medina and has been a symbol of the city since the 11th century.¹³ UNESCO proclaimed it a cultural space of intangible heritage in 2001; since 2008 it has been on the Representative List.¹⁴ What is recognised is not buildings but practices: storytellers and poets, musicians and Gnawa dancers, snake charmers, as well as henna painting, food stalls and traditional medicine.¹⁵ In the former State Bank branch on the square, a building from 1922, a museum of the Fondation nationale des musées now tells the story of the square and of the halqa, the storytelling circle.¹⁶

From later periods UNESCO names, among others, the Badi Palace, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia Palace.¹⁷ The madrasa was built on the orders of the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib; an inscription dates it to 1564/65.¹⁸ Around its courtyard lie 130 student rooms; the school closed in 1960 and opened as a historic monument in 1982.¹⁹ The Saadian burial complex on the south side of the Kasbah Mosque was enlarged under Ahmad al-Mansur (reigned 1578–1603) and rediscovered in 1917 by the monuments service; its main hall, the Chamber of the Twelve Columns, is al-Mansur's mausoleum.²⁰

Because traditional materials are used in restoration work in the medina, the building crafts have, according to UNESCO, been given a new lease of life: zellige, tadelakt plaster, painted and carved wood, stucco and wrought iron.²¹ The crafts of the region are shown at the Dar Si Saïd museum, a town palace from the second half of the 19th century, built for Si Saïd Ben Moussa, minister of war under Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz (1894–1908).²² Since 1930 the house has been devoted to the arts; today it is the national museum of weaving and carpets, with pieces from the High Atlas, the Souss and the Tafilalet.²³

According to the airport operator ONDA, Marrakesh-Menara airport handled 10,197,736 passengers in 2025, up from 9,263,261 in 2024.²⁴ On 24 April 2025 construction began on the high-speed line from Kenitra to Marrakesh: some 430 kilometres of new line, designed for 350 kilometres per hour.²⁵