Throughout its history, Marrakech has competed with Fez to be the principal city of Morocco and the country has broken up several times into two independent parts with their capital The northern city of Fez and the southern city of Marrakech. The choice of Rabat as the capital of modern Morocco can be seen as a compromise between these two rival cities. Saudi Airlines, which recently opened a direct service between Jeddah and Marrakech, has compiled its list of attractions for this ancient city. it is recommended to take this 3 days desert tour from Marrakech
Jemaa El Fna
This is the largest square in Marrakech and one of the main attractions of the city. Since 2001, the square along with the entire historic center of Marrakech has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The history of the square’s origin is unknown. The origin of the name is also unknown. The square has a huge bazaar with street restaurants every evening. Around them, jugglers, storytellers sharing Berber myths and stories, drummers, gnawa musicians, snake charmers, and individuals professing to be healers or dentists congregate.. Performances by various street artists usually last until midnight and are extremely popular with tourists.
Jardine Majorelle
This garden was the studio of the artist Jacques Majorelle, who moved to live in Morocco in 1919. The area was acquired in 1924. It is known that Majorelle was fond of collecting plants and was involved in financing botanical expeditions. From his many trips, he brought back extraordinary plants from all over the world. Today, the Majorelle Garden is open to tourists. This magical garden offers charming alleyways, bubbling streams, and more than 300 plant species.
Yves Saint Laurent Museum
The French designer bought the Jardin Majorelle in 1980 because of his love for the city. In 2017, a museum dedicated to his career was opened next to the garden, displaying hundreds of his works.
Qutubiyah Mosque
The mosque, built in the 12th century, is the largest in the city. It is also famous for its fabulous 69 metre high minaret which was the inspiration for such buildings from the Almohad period as the Hassan Tower in Rabat and the Giralda in Seville. The minaret is crowned by four copper spheres. The stairway inside is wide enough to allow the muezzin to climb it on horseback. it is also possible to do Morocco Tours
Ben Yusuf Madrassah
This is the largest madrasa in Morocco. Built-in the 14th century, it has 107 hujras, arranged in two tiers around seven cozy courtyards linked by a corridor along three sides of the courtyard. There are traditional galleries on two sides of the courtyard, but here they are separated by a blank wall. The madrasah could accommodate up to 900 students. The madrasah closed as an educational institution in 1960 and opened as a museum in 1982. Visitors can explore more than 100 tiny rooms and visit the ornate prayer rooms. it is important to make this 4 days desert tour from Marrakech
Bahia Palace
On the territory of the complex, which occupies almost 8 hectares, there are fountains and a garden with cypresses, jasmine, orange, and banana trees, stables, a mosque, and a hammam. The rooms of the palace are lavishly decorated with marble, ceramic tiles, zellij, and cedar. These materials were brought from all over northern Africa. The marble came from Meknes where it most likely came from Carrara and may have previously decorated the palace of Moulay Ismail or the palace of El Badi. The cedar was brought from the Middle Atlas, and the terracotta from Tetuan. This is a striking example of 19th-century Moroccan architecture.
About Cities: Medina, Marrakech, Casablanca, Chefchaouen.
The value of Moroccan cities is probably in the Medina (the old part of the city, built in the 19th century). It is an ancient walled city, similar to the Russian fortresses, but here life is still boiling. Over the past few centuries in the Medina, little has changed, except that the flow of tourists has increased. Children still play in droves in the streets, men carry goods on donkeys and horses, while outside the walls of Medina, in the new quarters, car traffic rumbles and young people point their fingers at their iPhones.
Only a few gates lead into the Medina, with very narrow streets inside (sometimes less than a meter wide) that make up veritable mazes. It is not difficult to get lost in the Medina.
If you follow most, you are more likely to find it, but if you need to find a landmark, it’s a half-day adventure.
Every city has its own chips.
In Chefchaouen, the entire medina (the historic part of the city) is painted sky blue, and there are super-stylish European streetcars running through the scary Arab Casablanca…
About the Mountains in Morocco
The Atlas Mountains (from Morocco through Algeria to the coast of Tunisia) is essentially a barrier between the largest desert, the Sahara, and the Atlantic Ocean.
In these mountains, Morocco is home to North Africa’s highest peak, Mount Toubkal (4,167 m). Climbing is simple, no training is required, and there is a large variety of organized tours for 10 days from $ 300, but good reviews of these tours I have not heard. As a rule, guides are nerdy. Accommodation is uncomfortable and unreasonably expensive, the whole interest is that your backpacks on donkeys were transported.
Your own climbing on Tupkal. To make an independent ascent to the top of the mountain, you need to go to the village of Imlil, there you can spend the night and in the morning to go towards the top. If the weather is good, it will take one day.
There is a mountain shelter Tupkal at an altitude of 3200; you can stay there for a fee or pitch a tent nearby and use the amenities of civilization for free.
Climbing season is all year round, but in January, there was a lot of snow, and I had to postpone the event. All my friends who came back had colds and were not happy with the weather; go from May to December, there is more opportunity to match the weather!
About the Desert
That’s where I was right, the best time to visit the Sahara is, of course, in winter! The sun is gentle here, it’s only +25 during the day, but even this temperature was enough for me to seek shelter in the shade and get completely burnt. I don’t want to think about what happens here in the summer.
How to visit deserts. There are two places in Morocco where you can see ergs (what we used to call the desert – the dunes), but mostly the desert is just rocky non-vegetation:
The first and most accessible is to visit a huge dune near the town of Merzuga, where the town resembles only a tourist street, everything else is an unremarkable village of locals. Within walking distance of the center and there is this huge dune and expanse of sand, but not over the horizon, the locals say that this is not a real desert, it’s so, modern!
The second option is more interesting, near the town of Mhamid, which is the backwoods. Ten kilometers to the north, there is a small area with low dunes, and forty kilometers to the west, the largest in this country erg Shigaga; there you can see Martian landscapes in orange tones.
The easiest and most interesting thing is to take quad bikes and pass this way with a breeze, recharged drive, or go on an organized tour in off-road vehicles. At the foot of the dunes, there are many campsites for all tastes, you can take a camel taxi and ride a camel around the dunes at sunset, for example.
Surfing
The roads along the Atlantic Ocean are usually taken by surfers, and there’s a lot of action all year round! In winter, the waves are steadily huge, ideal for professionals, in summer, the waves are smaller, and the conditions are softer, you can rest and learn for beginners.
The city of Agadir, which is considered the mecca of surfing, to me as a completely tasteless new building with expensive products for tourists. The most atmospheric places are in the little coastal towns between Agadir and Essaouira, such as Imsouane, a small surf village that can be reached by bus from Agadir or hitchhiking with no problem.
The price of surfing depends on how you know how to haggle; that’s the great beauty of Morocco. If you are a beautiful blonde girl, you can get a board for nothing.
