A hidden royal necropolis
The magnificent Saadian Tombs await behind the Kasbah walls
Sealed for over 400 years, these marble-floored chambers hold the Saadian dynasty in cool, patterned stillness beneath carved plaster and cedar ceilings.
Tall marble columns rise from tiled floors as light filters through small windows, catching on zellige, carved stucco, and gilded woodwork. The air feels weighty and inward-drawn, as if the space itself remembers everything it has witnessed.
When Darkness Falls
Night street food and after-hours music in Djemaa el-Fnaa
Smoke lifts from charcoal grills as the square fills with rows of open-air kitchens, their lamps pulling people in from every direction. Skewers hiss, pots of soup are ladled at speed, and cooks call out orders while diners sit shoulder to shoulder on low stools, eating with their hands as the night gathers pace.
Beyond the food stalls, the medina takes on new life — storytellers, musicians and late-night wanderers threading through the glow and noise until the square belongs entirely to the evening.
What to See & Do in Marrakech
From palm-fringed gardens to the pulse of the souks, this Red City – in the shadow of the Atlas Mountains – ignites every sense from dusk until dawn.
We love the Dar El Bacha Museum for its exquisite zellij tilework and the quietest courtyard in the city. For a change of pace, the industrial-chic boutiques of the Gueliz district offer a sophisticated look at the city's thriving contemporary design scene.
THE MEDINA’S NORTH STAR
An Almohad minaret rising above Marrakech
The Koutoubia’s rose-coloured minaret stands above the city, visible from almost anywhere you happen to be. Built in the 12th century, its proportions and stonework still set the tone for much of Marrakech around it.
As the sun drops, the tower catches the last of the light and the call to prayer moves across the rooftops, mixing with the sound of horse-drawn carriages passing below. Orange blossom drifts through the air and, for a moment, the city seems to slow around it.
Through the medina
Narrow lanes, spice in the air and no obvious way through
Inside the medina, the air smells of ras el hanout and wood smoke, and the streets begin to fold in on themselves. Alleys twist and tighten, opening onto stalls stacked with bright spices and workshops where artisans are still at work beneath old stone walls. You don’t need a plan here — just time to wander, turn corners and let the city show you what’s around the next bend.
AN UNRULY ALCHEMY
Where old walls, new cafés and the heat of the medina sit side by side
Marrakech moves in layers. Red walls and narrow lanes open out into rooftop bars, design studios and quiet riads, all sitting inside a city that still smells of dust, spice and leather. One moment you’re in the middle of the medina’s noise and movement, the next you’re stepping into somewhere cool, clean-lined and almost silent. It’s that constant shift — between what has been here for centuries and what’s arriving now — that gives the city its edge.
Of stately riads and vine-covered courtyards
A shaded break from the heat, where stone, water and shadow take over
Stepping into a Moroccan garden changes the temperature almost immediately. The dry air of the medina gives way to cool marble, damp stone and the quiet sound of fountains layered through tiled courtyards. Light filters in through leaves and carved screens, softening everything it touches.
Carved pillars sit beside long linen drapes, heavy stone balanced by fabric and shade. As dusk moves in, glass lanterns begin to glow and the garden settles into something slower and calmer — a private space designed to sit apart from the noise just beyond its walls.
Imperial echoes
Red walls, tiled courtyards and the long shadow of Marrakech’s imperial past
Marrakech still lives inside its walls. Red-earth ramparts stretch for miles, holding in mosques, palaces, gardens and working streets that have been here for centuries. Near the Koutoubia, you can step from the quiet geometry of Le Jardin Secret straight into the heat and movement of the Bab Debbagh tanneries, where leather is still dyed as it always has been. The city doesn’t separate its history from daily life — it folds it into everything you see, smell and walk past.
the hearth of life
Late afternoon in the Mellah, when the square fills with heat, bread and movement
In the Mellah, the air is thick with sun-warmed dust and the smell of fresh khobz. Motorbikes weave through the square as vendors push heavy wooden carts over the cobbles, calling out to anyone who slows down. A few dirhams buys you a warm round of bread, still soft under its coarse crust, carrying the faint smoke of the communal oven it came from.
Twilight near the Souqs
A short window between the heat of the day and the noise of the night
As the afternoon begins to soften, Jemaa el-Fnaa shifts. Brass and wooden carts line the edge of the square, balanced on spoked wheels and stacked with oranges and grapefruit that catch the last of the dusty, honeyed light. Beneath them, blue barrels sit half-hidden in the shadows, while the Koutoubia rises quietly above it all. It’s the moment when the square feels in between things — not yet crowded, not yet loud — just juice being poured, coins changing hands, and the city catching its breath.
Adventures in ultramarine
Blue walls, green pools and the quiet that settles between them
Behind low walls in the heart of the city, a collection of rare botanicals takes over. Cobalt walls flare against glossy palms, water moves quietly through tiled basins, and the air cools beneath bamboo and bougainvillea. Once the private retreat of Jacques Majorelle and later restored by Yves Saint Laurent, the garden feels less like a landmark and more like a pause — a place to drift between cactus and lily ponds while the heat, the colour and the noise of the medina fall away, just long enough to breathe before stepping back out.
Through the brick archway
Some of Marrakech’s most memorable places sit just out of sight
Beneath a scalloped brick arch, the street tightens into a corridor of rugs, scarves and stacked cushions, their colours flaring against the warm, worn stone. Light slips in through the slatted roof overhead, catching on woven patterns and the soft pile of folded textiles, while somewhere deeper in the lane a single bulb glows above a stall still open for business. It’s the kind of place where you slow without realising — brushing past fabric as voices rise, coins change hands and the lane keeps moving around you.
A palace Where the city falls away
A sweep of courtyards and carved rooms in the heart of the Mellah
In the stillness of Bahia, marble and tiled courtyards hold the light as it filters through carved screens and falls across citrus trees. A shallow fountain sits at the centre, its water barely moving as blue-edged arches and patterned walls shift through the day. Cedar doors open onto quiet rooms, their surfaces worked with small, patient detail. It’s a place built to turn noise into quiet — where you find yourself slowing down, listening to water and footsteps instead of the streets outside.
Quiet gardens, working tanneries and a café that hasn’t changed much in a century
Venture Beyond the Familiar
Le Jardin Secret sits just off the busy streets, a set of restored courtyards where clipped hedges, tiled paths and running water bring the temperature — and the pace — down a notch. Not far away, Bab Debbagh still smells of leather and lime, its vats and walkways doing exactly what they have always done.
From there, old photographs at the Maison de la Photographie offer another way into the city’s past, before things turn softer again at Dar el Bacha, where dark wood, patterned tiles and low tables frame a long coffee taken slowly.
