Marrakech

Marrakech has a way of arriving all at once. Turn a corner from a narrow lane and step into a square that hums with colour, sound and the smell of cumin and charcoal smoke. The city is built from a local terracotta brick that gives it a consistent rose-pink tone, most striking in the flat light of early morning or the amber hour before dusk.

The medina and its layers

Marrakech unfolds around a dense network of narrow passages, covered lanes and small squares that can confuse and reward in equal measure. The medina, one of the most intact historic urban centres in North Africa, is the oldest of the city's inhabited layers. The Koutoubia Mosque, with its distinctive minaret, has served as a visual landmark for centuries and is visible from most of the old city and its palm groves.

Beyond the Koutoubia, traces of the Almohad and Saadian dynasties remain in the city's fabric. The Saadian Tombs, a rare surviving example of Saadian architecture, contain some of the finest carved plasterwork and geometric tilework in the country. The Mellah, the old Jewish quarter situated near the royal palace, reflects another strand of the city's social history.

The souks and the square

The bazaars of the medina are loosely organised by trade. Separate quarters are given over to leather workers, metalworkers, carpenters and cloth merchants, each continuing forms of knowledge passed through generations. Craftspeople work in full view, and the division between workshop and shop remains blurry.

The Jemaa el-Fna square at the heart of the medina operates differently at each hour of the day. In the morning it is quieter, dominated by orange juice stalls and the occasional storyteller or musician. As afternoon gives way to evening the square fills: the smoke from grilled meat rises between rows of food stalls, and the air carries a mixture of voices, drums and the calls of vendors. It is a working public space that has continued in this form for a long time.

Beyond the walls

The city's older gardens and palm groves lie just outside the medina walls, a contrast to the terracotta tones and tight lanes within. On clear days the Atlas Mountains appear on the southern horizon, their presence a reminder that the city sits in a semi-arid plain shaped by those distant peaks.