DISCOVER MARRAKESH, THE RED CITY…

MARRAKESH, AN ENTERTAINING CITY

  Carts filled with oranges, roasted seeds, women coming from the Anti-Atlas to sell their baskets, storytellers, musicians, dancers, public writers in front of their black umbrella, fortune tellers, traditional healers, pharmacist. All offfering a hallucinating experience all day long.
   Then the foodstall owners take over the square. All around, the cooking fires are lit. And finally, in a sky full of stars, the moon fulfils its true vocation: being the thousand and first lantern on the JEMAA EL FNA square.
   MARRAKESH is awakening. As each morning, for the past 800 years, the call for prayer by the muezzin resounds from the 70 meter high KOUTOUBIA, the spiritual lighttower of MARRAKECH.
   The sun rises on MARRAKECH. A bussy crowd fills the labyrinth of streets in the Medina. Men hurry themselves to the mosque BEN YOUSSEF, right next to the Medersa. This Koranic school is one one of the most remarkable monuments of MARRAKECH, gigantic and superb Koranic school constructed by sultan Abou el-Hassan.
   The sun illuminates MARRAKECH. Its rays light the pink marble of the fountains, filling the tiled patio’s, and reflecting the colourful zeligeg, warming up the turquois corridors and where the blue, white and green mosaics get lost in the stuccos BAHIA Palace and DAR SI SAID, today holding the most important Moroccan arts.
   This legendary sun of MARRAKECH completes, by contrast, the cold beauty of the SAADIAN TOMBS. It illuminates the vestige of  the EL BADI PALACE and sometimes, superb mirage, the dazzled visitor sees scintillating these passed richnesses  of gold marble, onyx, exchanged against their sugar weight by AHMED EL the MANSOUR, the most famous of the saadian sovereigns.
   The sun sets on MARRAKECH. Then, in a blazing sky where the ATLAS mountain and its eternal snow  is outlined, the MANARA pavilion reflects its perfect proportions in motionless water of its reservoir.
    Welcome in the SOUKS, you are out of time. In the souk of copper, maybe where the face is marked with a wise concentration, with an ancestral dedication, the dinandiers are hammering the metal. Or still in the SOUK LAGHZAL, devoted to wool. Or of the souk ZARBIA, with the shouting of the salesmen, selling there carpets and caftans to the hightest bidder.
   You are elsewhere now. There where the saffron scents, cumin, black pepper, ginger, vervain, cloves, flowers of orange trees charm the nostrils. Where bags of almands are piled up, peanuts, chick-peas, baskets full of dates, barrels of olives and, on in the cupbaoards of the pharmacies are aligned: pots of henné, of ghassoul, flasks with essence of roses, jasmine, mint, kohl, pieces D’amber, of musk…

    Outside the ochre fortified walls, a change of rythm, a change of colour. Rustle of the wind in the foliage of the trees, chirping of the birds, overwhelming sences of jasmine and chèvrefeuille, well known perfums of the famous rosegardens of Marrakech. Here, nature is a haven of peace, beauty and meditation. Undoubtedly, it is grateful to mankind for watering it, since 1106, thanks to an ingeniious system of canals, water wells and springs. 13000 hectares of greenery, 180000 palmtrees, prestigious golf course. This is the famous PALMGROVE OF MARRAKECH.
   Further away, behind the ROYAL PALACE, you will find the AGDAL GARDENS, where sumptuous festivals are taking place. With the changing of seasons, the trees get loaded with divine fruits, as beautiful as delicious oranges, figs, grenades, olives…
   Close to BAB DOUKKALA, there are the MAJORELLE GARDENS, where abound giant bamboos, yuccas, papyrus, palm trees, banana trees, cypress, will philodendrons, extraordinary bougainvilleas, extraordinary cactuses of which the natural colours contrast extremely well with the hard blue of the villa.

MOUNTS AND WONDERS Of the ATLAS

   Seen from MARRAKECH, the mountains, with their imposing mass and their peaks covered with snow, seem an unreal and fabulous decoration. However, it only takes 20 km to start unforgettable excursions and to discover the grandness, the awsomeness and splendour of the ever changing sceneries of the Atlas.

   To the south-east of MARRAKECH, you will cross the very hospitable Berber villages, such as AGHMAT, DAR CAÏD OURIKI. Following the road, you ‘ll notice the terrace gardens, along de OURIKA stream upto ARHBALOU. And there, what a choice you have!.

   Down southwards, once again new sceneries. At 47km from MARRAKECH, on the road to TAROUDANNT, in the typical Berber village of ASNI, barter is practised every saturday, the marketday. Towards OUIRGANE, the landscapes evoke the American canyons. Splendid rockformations and valleys, bring you to the very charming IMLIL, hamlet of the mountains. From this place, the excursions to the national park of Toubkal lare leaving: climbing the top (4.165M), the highest peak of North Africa, to 3.800 M, of the plain of TAZAGHAGHT, a stone desert perched so high up the mountains it dominates the clouds.

   To the East of MARRAKECH, what an abuncance of water! The waterfalls of OUZOUD, up to 100 meters and more. The Méhasseur stream, with its natural bridge at Imi-n-Ifri, that cascades down amongst enormous rocks, ending up in the reservoir of Aït-Aadel, in a landscape adorned with red striped hills.

   As eternal as the snow on the highest mountain tops, as imposing as the Atlas mountain, as rooted in history as the palm trees in the soil, MARRAKECH brings the final climax to a moving beauty.
   The biggest kings disputed it, dynasty of dynsatys took control of it, scolars, craftsmen, architects, painters, sculptors of all the times build here their sumptuous palaces, mosques, gardens, médersas... MARRAKECH, the imperial city which formerly lent its name to Morocco.
Berbers and Arabs meet here, nomads and mountain dwellers come together here, goods are in abuncance here, craft industry florishes, luxirious hotels, hotels, traditional riads, restaurants, golf courses, casinos, places to go out at night: MARRAKECH is definitly the capital of southern Moroccan..

   For all the richness, gathered for more than 1000 years, to have all your senses activated, come and discover MARRAKECH.