Marrakech Medina Walking Tour With Local Guide

The Bahia Palace was built in the last years of the 19th century, the palace is a maze of patios planted with fruit trees, passageways and empty chambers with painted ceilings, the sunlights shines through wrought-iron bars creating beautiful patterns on the zellige tiles.

the Saadian Tombs: a series of chambers around a small garden, decorated with carved and plaster, is the final, and ultimately rathe moving, resting place of the Saadian family.

The mosque was founded in 1147 by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min right after he conquered Marrakesh from the Almoravids. A second version of the mosque was entirely rebuilt by Abd al-Mu'min around 1158, with Ya'qub al-Mansur possibly finalizing construction of the minaret around 1195.[4] This second mosque is the structure that stands today. It is considered a classic and important example of Almohad architecture and of Moroccan mosque architecture generally.[4] The minaret tower, 77 metres (253 ft) in height, is decorated with varying geometric arch motifs and topped by a spire and metal orbs. It likely inspired other buildings such as the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Tower of Rabat, which were built shortly after in the same era.[5][6][7][8] The minaret is also considered an important landmark and symbol of Marrakesh.

The origin of its name is unclear: jamaa means "congregation" or "mosque" in Arabic, probably referring to a destroyed mosque on the site. Fnaʼ or fanâʼ can mean "death/extinction" or "a courtyard, space in front of a building". "finâʼ in Arabic commonly means "open area"; a straight translation would be "the gathering/congregation area". Other meanings could be "The assembly of death," or "The Mosque at the End of the World".[1] Another explanation is that it refers to a mosque with a distinctive courtyard or square in front of it.[2] A third translation is "assembly of the dead", referring to public executions on the plaza around 1050 CE.[3]

One specific explanation endorsed by some modern historians[4][5] comes from historical reports that the powerful Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur (ruled 1578-1603) had embarked on the construction of a monumental Friday mosque in the middle of the square. However, due to a downturn in fortunes (probably outbreaks of the plague) the sultan was forced to abandon the project part-way through and the mosque remained unfinished and fell into ruins. The ruined outline of its walls was apparently still visible in the 19th century and corresponded roughly to the current site of the "Souk Jdid" (the "new souk" just north of the food-stalls).[4] In this way, "jamaa al-fna' " ostensibly refers to the place of the "ruined mosque". The name "Jamaa al-Fna' " appears in historical records for the first time in the 17th-century chronicle of the West African historian Abderrahman as-Sa'idi. As-Sa'idi claimed that the intended name of al-Mansour's unfinished mosque was jamaa al-hna, meaning "Mosque of Tranquility", but that after its abandonment it came to be known, by popular irony, as the "Mosque of ruination/annihilation", or jamaa al-fana'.[4][6] (The word fana' in this case meaning a state of being extinguished or totally ruined, etc.)

History
Marrakesh was founded by the Almoravid Dynasty in 1070 by Abu Bakr ibn Umar and subsequently developed by his successors. Initially, the city's two main monuments and focal points were the fortress known as Ksar el-Hajjar ("fortress of stone") and the city's first Friday mosque (the site of the future Ben Youssef Mosque). The Ksar el-Hajjar was located directly north of today's Koutoubia Mosque. The major souk (market) streets of the city thus developed along the roads linking these two important sites and still correspond to the main axis of souks today.[7] At one end of this axis, next to the Ksar el-Hajjar, a large open space existed for temporary and weekly markets. This space was initially known as Rahbat al-Ksar ("the place of the fortress").[6][8] Other historical records refer to it as as-Saha al-Kubra ("the grand square"), or simply as as-Saha or ar-Rahba.[4]

The Almoravid emir Ali ibn Yusuf (ruled 1106-1143) soon afterwards constructed a palace directly south of and adjacent to the Ksar el-Hajjar, on the actual site of the later Koutoubia Mosque. One part of this palace was a monumental stone gate on its east side which faced towards the Rahbat al-Ksar.[8] The gate likely played a symbolic role: it was the entrance to the palace for those seeking an audience with the sovereign, and it's possible the ruler himself would sit, enthroned, before the gate and publicly dispense justice on a weekly basis (a tradition which existed among other Moroccan and Andalusian ruling dynasties).[8] The importance of the great public square in front of the royal palace thus led it to become the place for public executions, military parades, festivals, and other public events until long afterwards.[9]

After a destructive struggle, Marrakech fell to the Almohads in 1147. Following this, Jamaa el-Fna was renovated along with much of the city. The city walls were also extended by Abu Yacoub Yusuf and particularly by Yacoub el Mansour from 1147–1158. The mosques, palace, hospital, parade ground and gardens around the edges of the marketplace were also overhauled, and a new royal kasbah (citadel) was erected further south. As the Almohad rulers moved to the new kasbah, the old Almoravid palace and fortress fell out of use and was eventually torn down (in part to make way for the new Koutoubia Mosque). Subsequently, with the fortunes of the city, the Jemaa el-Fna saw periods of decline and also renewal.[10]

Despite the encroachment of new constructions on the edge of the square over time, it never disappeared due to its role as an open market area and as the site of public events.[6] One attempt to fill a large part of the square is reported to have been made by the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansour who attempted to build a monumental mosque in the square. The mosque would have likely followed the same model as the Bab Doukkala and Mouassine Mosques, being deliberately built in the midst of major traffic routes in the city, and would have been accompanied by a number of attendant civic and religious buildings.[4] The mosque was never finished, however, possibly due to disasters like the plague epidemics during al-Mansour's reign. Construction was abandoned part-way through and what had been built fell into ruin and was taken over by market stalls and other occupants. (It is probably also the site of a modern shop complex, Souk Jdid, just north of the food-stalls today, whose outline has the same compass orientation as the mosques of al-Mansour's time.) This ruined mosque may have given the square its current name, Jemaa el-Fna ("Mosque of Ruins") (see previous section above).

You can visit the souk and explore our moroccan artisanat (craftsman)