A thousand years of continuous history and only forty-four of French protectorate. Twelve stops through the city founded by Saharan nomads that gave its name to a whole country: the booksellers' minaret, the square of the storytellers, the souks, the old spice square, the Saadian fountain, the only Almoravid dome that survived, the students' madrasa, the vizier's palace, the Jewish quarter, the palace a sultan took apart, the tombs someone walled up and the blue Majorelle garden. Approximate audio duration: 24 minutes.
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Marrakech: el imperio almorávide y la ciudad que nunca fue colonial
Mil años de historia continua y apenas cuarenta y cuatro de protectorado francés. Doce paradas por la ciudad que fundaron nómadas del Sahara y que le dio nombre a todo un país: el minarete de los libreros, la plaza de los cuentacuentos, los zocos, la vieja plaza de las especias, la fuente saadí, la única cúpula almorávide que sobrevivió, la madrasa de los estudiantes, el palacio del visir, el barrio judío, el palacio que un sultán desmontó, las tumbas que alguien tapió y el jardín azul de Majorelle. Duración aproximada de audio: 24 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~24 min of audio · 7 km on foot (~1 h 45 min walking) · about 2 h 15 min in total
You are in front of the Koutoubia Mosque. Look up: the reddish stone minaret is about seventy-seven metres tall, and for more than eight hundred years it has been the first thing anyone sees of Marrakech, arriving from any direction.
Its name comes from the kutubiyyin, the booksellers, who had their stalls at the foot of the mosque. Picture the scene: manuscripts, copyists, students arguing about law and astronomy in a city that was then the capital of an empire stretching from the Sahara to the middle of the Iberian peninsula.
But this mosque was not built by the founders of Marrakech. The …
2
The Square That Cannot Be Written Down
You are in Djemaa el-Fna. Look around: water sellers with colourful hats and little bells, snake charmers, women painting henna, orange juice sellers, Gnawa musicians with iron castanets. When the sun goes down, all of this fills with smoke from the grills.
Nobody knows for certain what the name means. One possible translation is assembly of the dead, and a common explanation is that the heads of the executed were displayed here. Another says it refers to a mosque that was never finished. Neither is proven.
What we do know is that this open ground has been a public square for centuries, at t…
3
Gold, Salt and Caravans
You are in the Semmarine souk, the main artery of the market. Look at the roof of reeds and slats that filters the light, the pierced metal lamps, the stacked yellow slippers, the hanging rugs. And listen: every so often someone shouts balak, watch out, and a motorbike or a cart goes by.
The souks of Marrakech have been organised by trade for centuries. There is a dyers' souk, a blacksmiths' souk, a tanners' souk, a carpet souk. For generations, the trade and the street passed from fathers to sons.
This city's wealth came from the south. Marrakech lies at the foot of the Atlas, at the point …
4
The Old Square
You are in the Rahba Kedima, the old square, known today as the spice square. Look at the cones of cumin and paprika, the straw hats, the woven baskets, and on some stalls jars of roots, alum stones, dried plants and even live chameleons.
Those stalls belong to herbalists. They sell traditional remedies for pain, for fertility, against the evil eye. They are part of a folk medicine that blends Berber, Arab and African knowledge, and that many people in Morocco still consult.
For centuries, this square was a grain market. Wheat and barley from the plains around the city were sold here, and th…
5
Water for the Neighbourhood
You are in front of the Mouassine fountain. Look at the three arches: one was for people to drink from, the others for animals, horses and pack mules. Above, the carved cedar wood and the green eave protected the water from the sun.
This fountain is part of a complex commissioned in the 1560s by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib: a mosque, a Quranic school, a public bath and this fountain. It was a way of giving a whole neighbourhood everything it needed.
The Saadians were the dynasty that ruled Morocco in the sixteenth century. They came from the Draa valley in the south and made Marrak…
6
The Only Thing Left
You are in front of the Koubba Ba'adiyn, the Almoravid dome. Look down: the building sits several metres below the level of today's street. That is how much the city's ground has risen in nine hundred years.
This small structure, from the early twelfth century, is the only Almoravid building that survives intact in Marrakech. It was part of the ablutions system of a great mosque raised by the sultan Ali ibn Yusuf. The faithful washed here before praying.
Everything else was destroyed by the Almohads. When they took the city in 1147, they considered the Almoravids heretics and demolished thei…
7
One Hundred and Thirty Cells
You are in the Ben Youssef madrasa. Step into the courtyard and stand still for a moment: the rectangular pool reflects everything, the dados of coloured tiles, the plaster carved like lace, the cedar wood above. Everything is designed so that the student looks inward.
A madrasa was a school of Islamic studies: the Quran, law, theology, grammar. This one was rebuilt by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib, the same one as the Mouassine fountain, and finished in 1564 or 1565. For a time it was one of the largest in North Africa.
Go up to the upper floor and look into the cells. There are abo…
8
The Vizier's Palace
You are in the Bahia palace, whose name means the brilliant one. Walk through the courtyards: white marble underfoot, fountains, orange trees, cedar ceilings painted with flowers and stars. What you see was built in the late nineteenth century by two grand viziers, father and son.
The one who gave it its final form was Ba Ahmed, grand vizier and, in practice, regent for the young sultan Abdelaziz between 1894 and 1900. He was the most powerful man in Morocco during those years, and this palace of more than a hundred rooms was the proof.
Tradition says that when Ba Ahmed died, in 1900, the pa…
9
The Quarter of Salt
You are in the Mellah, the old Jewish quarter of Marrakech. Look at the houses: unlike the rest of the medina, many have balconies and windows onto the street. It was another way of living, inside the same city.
The word mellah comes from the Arabic for salt. A common explanation is that the first Jewish quarter of Fez was in a salty area; another is that Jews were tasked with salting the heads of the executed before they were displayed. Neither is confirmed.
The Mellah of Marrakech was created in 1558 by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib, who moved the Jewish population to this sector, …
10
The Palace Paid For with a Ransom
You are in the El Badi palace, the incomparable. Look at the great empty courtyard, the sunken pools, the huge mud-brick walls. And up above, on top of the walls, the storks' nests. This was one of the most luxurious palaces of its time. Today it is a beautiful ruin.
It was commissioned by the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, the victorious, after the battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578. In that battle, also called the battle of the Three Kings, King Sebastian of Portugal was killed and his army destroyed.
Thousands of Portuguese nobles were taken prisoner, and their families paid enormous ranso…
11
The Tombs Someone Walled Up
You are at the Saadian Tombs. There will probably be a queue to look into the main hall: it is worth the wait. It is the Hall of the Twelve Columns, with Carrara marble, carved plaster and a gilded cedar-wood dome. That is where Ahmad al-Mansur's tomb lies.
Around it, in the garden, there are dozens of smaller tombs covered in tiles. They belong to members of the royal family, viziers, servants of the court. The Saadian necropolis holds about sixty people inside and more than a hundred in the garden.
What is extraordinary is what happened next. When the Alaouites took power in the seventeent…
12
Majorelle Blue
You are in the Majorelle Garden. Look at the villa: an intense cobalt blue with yellow details, surrounded by cacti, bamboo and palm trees. That colour has its own name: Majorelle blue.
It was created by Jacques Majorelle, a French painter who arrived in Morocco in 1917, in the middle of the protectorate. In 1923 he bought this land, and over four decades he turned it into a botanical garden with plants from five continents. The studio you see was built in 1931.
Notice where you are: outside the walls, in Gueliz, the new town. This is the decision that explains the title of the walk. The res…
How long does the "Marrakech: the Almoravid Empire and the City That Never Became Colonial" audio tour take?
It has about 24 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 7 km walking route (~1 h 45 min on foot). Plan roughly 2 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Booksellers' Minaret" (coordinates 31.62375, -7.9936). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Marrakesh and pick "Marrakech: the Almoravid Empire and the City That Never Became Colonial". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
