MARRAKECH

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

By Younes Ourbya
BAHIA
PALACE
EXQUISITE EASTERN ARCHITECTURE

Bahia Palace is considered one of the grand palaces of

the Moroccan city of Marrakech, or what is called the
Red City. Created by Minister Ahmed bin Musa, in the
19th century, to commemorate the name of his wife,
“Bahia”, and today it is an artistic masterpiece dating
from the splendour of Moroccan architecture of
Andalusian character which overflows with its
civilisational manifestations, in particular What you tell
about the secrets of ancient history.
Originally built for the
personal use of Si Moussa,
Grand Vizier of the Sultan, a
former slave who climbed
the ranks, the house was
soon after occupied by his
son Bou Ahmed. He slyly
rose to power in 1894 when
he managed to gain
complete control over the
state until his death in 1900.
It was during Bou Ahmed’s
reign that the brilliance of
the palace was really
enhanced with the addition
lush gardens, the small riad
surrounding private gardens
(of which visitors today pass
through immediately upon
entering the palace area)
and each of the rooms
decorated in truly elegant
Moroccan style – carved
stucco and cedarwood to
decorate each of the rooms.
 EL BADI
PALACE
Incomparable Arabo Islamic
Jewel
The El Badi Palace (sometimes spelled El
Badiî or El Badia Palace, literally “palace of
the incomparable”) is an architectural
ensemble built at the end of the 16th
century and located in Marrakech in
Morocco. Former palace, it was built by the
Saadian sultan Ahmed al-Mansur Dhahbî to
celebrate the victory over the Portuguese
army, in 1578, in the battle of the Three
Kings. Today, there is only a huge
esplanade carved out of gardens, planted
with orange trees and surrounded by high
walls. Indeed, in 1696, the Alawite sultan
Moulay Ismaïl took what was richer in this
palace to build the imperial city of Meknes.
The building was erected on the northeast
corner of the Casbah, not far from the
private apartments of the Saadian Sultan
Ahmed al-Mansur Dhahbî. The construction
of the palace took place from 1578 to 1594,
but some work continued until 1603, the date
of the sultan’s death. Symbol of power, the
palatial ensemble expressed the splendor of
the sovereign both to his subjects and to
foreign embassies: it was the setting for
solemn audiences and celebrations.
Considered a jewel of Islamic art, its
construction was influenced by the Alhambra
in Granada (Spain).

The prayer hall is topped by a mobile roof of

3,400 m2 and 1,100 t which can move in five
minutes thanks to a drive system. When the
roof is closed, the prayer hall is lit by 50
chandeliers and 8 Venetian Murano sconces.
The largest are six meters in diameter, ten
meters in height and weigh 1,200 kg. The
roofing required the installation of 300,000
specially made aluminum cast tiles by the
Bouygues group teams led by Aldo Carbonaro
(project director) and Abdelatif Haboubi (site
manager), imitating the terracotta tile. glazed
traditional from Fez but four times lighter.
These tiles have brought a weight gain of 65%
compared to traditional tiles with much higher
reliability performance.
For the finishing and the
religious objects,
craftsmen from all over
the kingdom helped to
cover more than 53,000
m2 of carved wood and
assembled more than
10,000 m2 of zellige
representing 80 original
motifs. The sculpted and
painted plaster was
entirely worked on site by
1,500 maâlems over
more than 67,000 m2.
The cedar wood domes
were fixed to frames
made with 971 t of
stainless steel and
suspended from the
reinforced concrete
structure. The marble and
granite coverings of
Moroccan origin
represent 50 hectares of
area with an average
thickness of 14 cm.
MAJORELLE
GARDEN THE BLUE GARDEN OF MARRAKECH
The garden covers nearly two and
a half acres. Collections of cacti,
exotic plants and trees are
landscaped to emphasize each
one’s unique beauty. The paths
allow us to see how the
architectural style of the villa-
studio, now transformed into a
museum, is set off by vibrant
colours dominated by its
“Majorelle blue”. The pools,
streams and fountains create a
haven of serenity. The delicate
sound of trickling water
accompanies the song of the
bulbul in the gardens and the
chirping of numerous other
bird species who have found their
Eden here: blackbirds, house
sparrows, robins, blue tits, great
tits, warblers, grey wagtails and
turtledoves.
Jacques Majorelle used to say: “The
painter has the modesty to regard this
enclosure of floral verdure as his most
beautiful work.” He referred to the
garden as “ vast splendours whose
harmony I have orchestrated… This
garden is a momentous task, to which
I give myself entirely. It will take my
last years from me and I will fall,
exhausted, under its branches, after
having given it all my love.”

The fame of Jacques Majorelle’s

garden grew, and even surpassed that
of his paintings.
The more the artist travelled, the more
he enjoyed gardening; he began to
bring plants from around the world and
to communicate internationally with
people who shared his passion for
botany. He acquired hundreds of rare
varieties of trees and plants: cacti,
palm trees, bamboo, coconut palms,
thujas, weeping willows, carob trees,
jasmine, agaves, white water lilies,
datura, cypress, bougainvilleas, and
ferns. As in the composition of a
painting, Majorelle arranged the
species between light and shadow
around a long central basin and along
irregular, meandering walkways with
curved, painted walls.
The colours that Jacques Majorelle began
to use in 1937 transformed his garden into
an even more fascinating masterpiece. He
first painted the facade of his studio, then all
of his property including gates, pergolas,
pots and the various buildings in a scheme
of bold and brilliant primary colors, one of
which would later be known as “Majorelle
blue”, an ultramarine, cobalt blue, “evoking
Africa”. Strong, deep, intense, it
accentuates the green of the leaves and
makes them sing.

Such luminous images are accompanied by

an enchanting and soothing acoustic
universe far from the rumble of the outside
world. As the evening draws in, one is
entranced by the relaxing croaking of frogs,
the subtle chirping of a thousand and one
birds – such as the bulbuls or oriental
nightingales and Eurasian collared doves –
 that have settled in the garden, the relaxing
murmur of the fountains and the rustling of
the leaves in the lightest breeze…
When the Jardin Majorelle opened to the
public in 1947, its fame was already well-
established. At the end of his life, after
having been forced to subdivide it on
several occasions, Jacques Majorelle had
to sell what remained. The garden,
abandoned, fell into disrepair.
JAMAA EL
FNA
SQUARE
Jamaa el-Fna square, the central
marketplace of Marrakech

There is nowhere in Morocco like Jemaa el

Fna square – no place that so easily
involves you and keeps you coming back for
more. By day, most of the square is just a
large open space, where a handful of snake
charmers bewitch their cobras with flutes,
medicine men (especially in the
northeastern part of the place) display cures
and Panacea, and pulling teeth, wielding
fearsome tongs, offer to tear off the pain of
the outside of the heads of people suffering
from toothache, trays of extracts attesting
molar their skills.
It is only in the afternoon that the square really happens. At dusk, as in France and Spain, people go out for a walk early
evening (especially in Bab Agnaou street), and the place fills gradually until it becomes a fairytale carnival, acrobats,
musicians and artists. Go down and you will soon be immersed in the ritual: wandering around, squatting in the circles of
spectators, which gives a dirham or two as your contribution. If you want a respite, you can move on the roof terraces,
like the Grand Balcony Café, for a view of the square, its storytellers and musicians, and the crowds who come to see
them.
As a foreigner in Jemâa, you may feel something of an intruder. Most of the crowd are Moroccan of course (some
foreigners, for example, will include storytellers’ tales), but tourists also make a significant contribution to both the
atmosphere and the cash flow. Sometimes a storyteller or musician may take it upon you to participate or contribute
generously to the end-of-show collection and, entering the show, it’s best to go bare-bones of the usual tourist outlines
such as watches, money belts or too much money; pickpockets and crooks work (giving a “present” and demanding
payment as it is an old scam to be wary of, ask tourists to change counterfeit euro coins is a more recent version) .The
crowd around the artists are sometimes used as an opportunity to grope foreign women, and by Moroccan men and
homosexual male tourists for cruising.
Tourist attractions include bottle hoop games, fortune tellers sitting under umbrellas with divination card packs ready and
women with piping bags full of henna paste, ready to paint their hands, feet or arms with “tattoos” that will last up to three
months, beware if synthetic “black henna”, which contains a toxic chemical; that red henna is natural (Café Henné
guarantees to use only natural henna).
MOSQUE
KOUTOUBIA
The Marrakech emblem

The city of Marrakech was captured by the

Almohads after the death of the Almoravid
leader Ali ibn Yusuf in 1147. The Almohads
wanted no trace of religious monuments built
by the Almoravids, their bitter enemies,
because they considered them heretics. Abd-al-
Mu’min, who won the territory, was responsible
for the construction of the first Koutoubia
mosque on the grounds of the former palace of
Ali ibn Yusuf in the southwest quarter of the
medina. This first mosque was built between
1147 and 1154 and completed in 1157. This first
mosque was rebuilt under the Almohad Caliph
Yacoub El-Mansour, because halfway through
construction, the mihrab (prayer niche) was off
center and not oriented towards Mecca and
underwent many changes until the end of the
12th century. When the Andalusians defeated
the Almohad dynasty. The alignment problem
was a minor problem, as devotees could
always adjust the direction when offering
prayers in the hall, but the decision was made
to build a new mosque next to the first
structure.The first mosque was completed while
the second mosque was under construction.
The second mosque was built identical to the
first except for its orientation.
The layout, architectural designs,
inscriptions, dimensions and materials
used for construction were all the same.
The plan and design of the minaret
remained the same in both buildings.
While in the first mosque, the
orientation of the mihrab was 5 degrees
out of alignment with the direction of
Mecca, in the second mosque, the
orientation was 10 degrees, therefore
further from Mecca than the first
mosque.
These two structures were built during
the reign of Abd al-Mu’min (reign
1130-1163). The second mosque was
started after 1154 and the building was
partially completed in September 1158,
with the first prayers held in the mosque
at that time. It was completed in the
1190s, although the reported
completion dates vary between 1162,
1190 and 1199. The first mosque
eventually deteriorated.
Text = office de tourisme de Marrakech Photos = Younes Ourbya 2019-2020

Younes Ourbya