| Djamaa El Fna - Square tips and photos posted by real travelers and Marrakesh locals. • 238 Photos
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After you've wandered around the stalls, gorged on all the mouthwatering food and watched everything on the square it's time to retreat to one of the many cafes and watch the goings-on from a distance. In terms of views, though not of food, the best are the rooftop cafes. From here you can see the entire square: the smoky and brightly lit food stalls are the centre, but circles of locals form all around the square watching storytellers and actors, and around the edges are the juice stalls selling fresh orange juice. On the northern side are the souks - full of anything you could possibly want to buy, and lots of things you definitely don't!
There are tourists aplenty in Djemaa el-Fna and it's tempting to dismiss it all as a commercial show, but the stories are all in Arabic and Berber and plenty of locals come here regularly as well. The monkeys, snake charmers and fortune tellers seem purely for the benefit of tourists though and you might find one evening here is enough - although most vistors come back night after night. Leave a Comment
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You'll see a gazillion women walking around with trays containing rows of circular cookies... BUY SOME! They are deliciously soft and chock full of coconut. They taste wonderful and they'll cost you next to nothing, a girl staying at our riad bought tray after tray to pack and take home to France for her mom, dad, grandmother, sister, etc. They make a nice little dessert after dinner at one of the food stalls. Leave a Comment Address: around Djemma el Fna
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The world famous Djemaa El Fna square is undoubtedly Marrakech's main tourist attraction.
This bustling square is listed by UNESCO as a "Masterpiece of World Heritage" and fully deserves this title.
It's hard to know where to start describing Djemaa El Fna, so the structure of this tip will reflect that of the square - a little bit disorganised and chaotic!
The square is a hive of activity by day and by night. During the day, the square is dominated by carts selling freshly squeezed orange juice, dried fruits, spices and nuts.
Crowds gather around snake charmers, acrobats, dancers, musicians and storytellers. Old ladies sit beneath umbrellas with syringes full of black henna, ready to tattoo any flesh in sight! Next to them, an elderly gentleman will offer to shine your shoes for just a few Dirhams, or tell your fortune if you prefer.
You steady yourself to take a photo, but just as you get your shot in focus, a young child somersaults in front of your camera and asks for "just one Dirham please mister", while somebody is tugging on your sleeve in an attempt to sell you a wooden toy snake.
Watch where you're pointing that camera! If the snake charmer (or the man with a monkey chained to his shoulder) thinks you're trying to photograph them, a demand for money will promptly follow. Men in traditional, colourful Moroccan dress will actively try to invade your photographs!
As you step to one side to avoid a man selling leather belts, a moped dashes past, narrowly avoiding a collision with the oncoming donkey that is pulling a cartload of tourists through the square.
By night, the aroma of grilled meats and spices fills the air. Crowds flock to the hundreds of food stalls for kebabs, seafood, snails or maybe a sheep's head. Beating drums and singing provide the background noise, while the smoke pluming from the food carts provides the atmosphere.
Stop by one of the carts selling hot ginseng and cinnamon tea, stand shoulder to shoulder with the locals watching the activity unfold around you! Leave a Comment
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Food stalls, snake charmers, storytellers, henna artists, monkeys, acrobats, medicine men, jugglers, musicians, pickpockets... the huge square of Djemaa el Fna has it all. Nights here are what cities must have been like back in mediaeval times, before television when people made their own entertainment.
By day the square is relatively quiet and empty; as evening approaches the crowds gather and the food stalls are set up. As night falls, thousands of people take to the streets - feasting on the delicious food of the world's largest open air restaurant, listening to stories, or just hanging out with friends and a pot of mint tea.
Love it or loathe it, Djemaa el-Fna has to be experienced at least once. And I say 'experienced' rather than 'seen' because Djemaa el Fna needs all the senses - tasting the food, smelling the spices and aromas, and hearing the endless noise of the horns. Leave a Comment
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All the touristy books and guide books will tell you to do this - Ive done this a number of times and include it as a thing to do when taking or sending friends to Marrakech - a roof top cafe such as Cafe France, Cafe Glacier, Cafe-Restaurant Argana - where you can enjoy coffee or mint tea as the unfolding spectacle of the busy Djmaa elFna unfolds below you and the beautiful Marrakechi sun sets. Leave a Comment
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Jemaa-al-Fnaa at night is an absolute must see. Pretty much all of Marrakesh turns out to eat, listen to musicians playing and storytellers spinning tales, get their fortunes told and hands painted with henna, and mingle. Also, this place is obviously Marrakesh's biggest (alcohol-free) singles bar. Herds of teenagers, of both sexes, are hanging around looking cool for each other. Don't worry about safety, except maybe from pickpockets--the square is so full of life that you'll feel very secure even quite late at night. There are plenty of taxis to take you home.
And then there's the orange juice. I have no idea why this is such a fixture, but for some reason, there are about 20 vendors on the square selling fresh-squeezed orange juice every night. It seems to be a Marrakesh specialty. Leave a Comment
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Unesco have declare this square as patrimonio de la humnidad, for the oral comunication.
At day you will see many umbrellas at the floor .. where you will find a man that will read you the future and a big restaurant and all kind of circus artists at night .. Leave a Comment
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djamaa el fna is the central square of the old part of marrakesh and a place that is out of this world.
the square really comes to live in the evening where the place is packed with musicians and story tellers who turns the square in to a surreal theater.
there are also dozens of food stands in the evening ob the square that are extremely colorful and serves good morrocoan food.
the square is also full of hustlers, but it's a part of the game there and as soon as you get used to having 50 guys shouting at you at the same time you will have a great time there. Leave a Comment Directions: right in the center of the old town.
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The heart and life of Marrakech, Djemaa el Fna is where everything happens! This enormous square occupies a central position in la Médina, the old city of Marrakech, and is the converging point of many of its streets and souks. It is an amazingly animated square, which is part theatre, part open-air restaurant, and part souk. It comes most alive in the evening when all the food sellers set up stalls for dinner. They cook harira soup, kebabs, tagines and other dishes in front of their clients for immediate consumption along tables and benches. Not too distant in the square, snakes and their charmers, monkeys, story tellers, orange juice vendors, drummers, and musicians all congregate and offer their services to the masses. Tourists are prime targets for them, but locals come here too. Beware, even taking pictures could cost you dirhams! The energy and sounds of Djemaa el Fna are just impossible to describe in words... Address: Place Djemaa el Fna
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Djema El Fna is the main market square in the "medina", the old town. During the day, you can see a lot of orange juice stalls, fresh date and nut sellers, henna tattooists, fortune tellers, acrobats, water sellers or snake charmers. But it is at night that the square comes more to life with all its food stalls trying to attract as many customers as possible (see my restaurant tips), its dancers, musicians, story-tellers (unfortunately only in Arabic), herborists ... No wonder that Djema El Fna was proclaimed "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" by Unesco (the medina is also a Unesco World Heritage site). I read that in the past, most of the Moroccan cities had such a market square but unfortunately, they didn't survive modern life and television. Djema El Fna itself would be a parking now if the authorities hadn't disagreed. This would have been a pity. Leave a Comment
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