El Bahia Palace, Marrakesh

The Al-Bahia Palace is a rather modern one - built for moroccan nobleman in the 19th century. The extensive palace has a pretty garden and wonderful inner courtyards with banana plants, fountains and tilework mosaics. During colonial times, the French governor of Morocco took his residence in the Bahia Palace - a sensible decision !

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I visited the Bahia Palace twice, once planned, the second time unintentionally as part of a guided tour (see my Warnings and dangers tips) but I didn't mind too much as it is an interesting place and I did learn a bit more.

Our guide kept saying what I thought at first was "See the wood", so I was looking up at the intricately painted ceiling, thinking what wood? but then realised he was actually saying Cedar wood! the artwork was painted over the highly prized cedar wood! (doh!) As You can see from my pictures, the artwork is quite stunning.

Besides the painted cedar wood, The Bahia Palace has some good examples of stucco panels, Zellij tilework and stained glass windows. (Please see my photos below)

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The Bahia Palace of Marrakech was constructed within the Qasba of Marrakech in the late 19th century for Ahmed Ibn Moussa, the son of the grand vizier of the 'Alawid ruler Muhammad IV.

El bahia palace is a lavish palace in the heart of the medina. It was designed by Muhammad al-Mekki of Marrakech and it is a large complex of houses and annexes set within extensive gardens and flanked by orange trees. Inside there is also a little mosque.

The thing that stikes most when you visit is how lavish the decorations are: carved stucco, carved and painted woodwork, hiny marble finishes and glazed ceramic tile. Yet the best are the numerous courtyards... each with a very nice fountain in the middle.

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The Bahia Palace originally was built by a so called ‘grand vizier’ (a kind of a prime minister) in 1866/67 and later – in the 1890’s - extended by his son Bou Ahmed, self a ‘grand vizier’ and also regent to the sultan. Bahia Palace means ‘brilliance’, although I also heard the name ‘Palace of the Favourite’. Bou Ahmed lived in the house with his 4 wives and a lot of concubines, servants and guards. After the extension it had about 150 rooms, 2 patios and 1 central courtyard, named ‘Harem Courtyard’. As all Moroccan palaces it is enclosed by an impressive wall.

When visiting the tourist sites in the southern medina the Bahia Palace is a ‘must see’ destination. After entering the gate (and paying the entrance fee of 10 Dirhams) we walked through the garden - with some nice flowering Christmas Stars - and reached the palace.

The whole palace is a sequence of riads, salons and rooms. All of them are richly decorated with stunning stucco work, mosaic zellij tiles on the floors ands walls, painted panels, beautiful doorways, nice fireplaces. But the cedar wooden ceilings in one of the first salons were stunningly beautiful and our favourite.
The ‘Harem Courtyard’ is rather simple and the surrounding wooden buildings can use some fresh painting.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Moroccan palace and I think by visiting the Bahia Palace one gets a good impression of the Moroccan-Islamic architecture. Be aware the palace is not a ‘real’ museum and all the rooms are completely empty.

Opening hours:
Saturday – Thursday: 8.45 – 11.45am and 2.45 – 5.45pm.
Friday: 8.45 – 11.30am and 3.00 – 5.45pm
Entrance fee (Dec. 2007): 10 Dirhams.

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This 19th century Palace is well worth a visit (I ended up making 2 visits, once independently, once (unintended) as part of a guided tour)

Its name translates as 'The Brilliant'

The attractive, well preserved, Harem Courtyard has featured in many Big Budget Movies.

Part of the palace is closed to visitors as it is still used by the Royal family and their staff.

The Bahia Palace was home to the Grand Vizier of Sultan Moulay al - Hassan, Si' Ahmed ben Musa or Bou Ahmed. It was built towards the end of the 19th century, taking nearly 15 years to complete. Following the death of Bou Ahmed, the Palace was Ransacked Restoration work is still ongoing !

The rooms (nearly 150!), housed Ba Ahmed, his 4 wives and 24 concubines plus servants and guards.

The Palace follows the patterns of typical Islamic architecture, with central courtyards, having rooms leading off, with doorways that are placed so that you can't see beyond (providing privacy) Fountains and gardens are also typical features, along with the decorative stucco panels, tiled floors and zellij work (see my next tip for more details)

To view the palace, there are arrows guiding you through the various rooms.

Open 08.30 - 11.15 and 14.30 -17.45 Sat - Thur
08.30 - 11.30 and 15.00 - 17.45 Fri.
Admission 10dh

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One of Marrakech's most popular sights is Bahia Palace, a beautiful Saadian palace in the medina north of the Mellah. There were huge crowds gathered here the day we visited and we got in for free as a French couple who were leaving handed us their tickets which hadn't been taken. We had already been to Maison Tiskiwin and Dar Si Said so we had planned to leave the Bahia Palace until the following day but once we received the free tickets we decided to go see it.

Despite the large crowds it was a very enjoyable place to visit. The palace contains a number of fine courtyards, riads and gardens. It’s deceptively large and on more than one occasion we thought we had seen everything only to find another passage leading to another elegant courtyard.

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Bahia Palace is the most beautiful building complex in Marrakech. It was built in 1886-87 for Si Moussa, a former slave. If you ever wanted to see a rags to riches story, then this is it.

Admission: 10dh

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A Wonderful place to visit. Nice and quiet away from the noise of Marrakesh roads.

The mosiac designs on the floor and walls are beautiful and the paintings on the woodwork are colourful, Many arch ways around the Palace.

Nobody gives you any hassle to show you around, you can just walk around at your own leisure.

Admission is 10 dirhams less than £1

Well worth a visit.

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