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Djemaa el Fna
Essouira harbour gate
Ijoukak: reataurant along the Tizi-n-Test road
The cafe from the squareBe out of time, release your...
Be out of time, release your imagination and let yourself go, feel. Just so.
And then, become imbued in the stream of people in Djemaa El Fna Square , at the heart of the Medina:
In the day, listening to story tellers, drinking water from 'Water givers' (men dressed up in red with little hats, carrying metal glasses and water to sell to visitors in the Square), letting your hands be drawn with HENNA by some girl or woman, getting amazed by the second-hand dentures being sold, and PROVED (bjjj!) and even BOUGHT (???), the magic for sad,ill, hopeful people, and a long list....
In the evening, having dinner at one of the many stalls in the Square taking some spicy lentils (they are great, no matter what your stomach says the next days. I wouldn´t change them for anything), and taking just-made oranje juices, or fruit juices at a shop by HOTEL ALI(see Restaurants), which is in one of the corners of the Square.
- Saadian tombs:(daily 9am-5pm; 10DH) though you cannot reach to the whole place it´s highly worthy. The richness you can see there is a huge contrast with what you can see when you get out of there. There are two main mausoleums in the enclosure. The finer is on the left as you come in- a group of 3 rooms built to house Al Mansour´s own tomb and completed within his lifetime. Outside, around the garden and courtyard, are scattered the tombs of over a hundred more Saadian princes and member of the royal household. All of the gravestones are brilliantly tiled and often elaborately inscribed. The volume of the tombs is related with the cathegory or relationship with the monarch.
- Al Badi Palace (daily 9am-5pm) . It took Moulay Ismail over ten years of systematic work to strip the palace of everything movable or of valuem and even so, there is a lingering sense of luxury.
The palace was begun shortly after Ahmed Al Mansour´s accession, its finance coming from the ransom paid out by the Portuguese after the Battle of the Three Kings at Ksar El Kabir in 1578.
- Al Bahia Palace (In fact, the 'Palace of the Favourite (woman)')(daily 8.30-11.45 am&2.30-5.45 pm, by a guided tour only). Former, it was the residence of grand vizier, and it is still used by the royal family (during time of the western New Year) and there is no public admission at these times. The name of the building means 'The Effulgence' of 'Brilliance' though it´s not just so.
- Koutoubia of course, quite beautiful, though you can only take a look from the outside. It was built trying to imitate the 'Giralda' in Sevilla, but not so tall.
- Ben Youssef Medersa(daily 9am-5pm; 10 DH)- for students taking courses in the mosque.Stands off a side street just to the east of the mosque, with a series of small, grilled windows. A Merenid foundations, it ws almost completely rebuilt under the Saadians, and it is this dinasty´s intricate, Andalusian-influenced art that has left his mark. Some parts have exact parallels in the Alhambra Palace in Granada (Spain), and it´s likely that Muslim Spanish architects were employed in its construction.
- Agdal and Menara Gardens, highly recommended in the summer, as it was designet for just the purpose of refreshing oneself in the middle of a Marrakesh day to inactivity. They are not flower gardens, but cool and completely still, a luxurious contrast to the close city streets. - Djemaa el Fna Square and its Magic People, getting mixed with them or just taking a look from one of the many coffee bars at any of the roofs around the Square (a little more expensive, but worthy if you are tired of an exhausting day).
- The Charming of the narrow, smelly, noisy streets empty of tourists, full of lonely children (their parents working at Djemma El Fna Square)trying to scare you (sometimes they do when they are too many at once, as you can easily get lost in a no-way-out street).
- The Food at Square, so much ambient and such a good food.
Just doing this I could be happy.
