Visit Marrakech

Once again we chose the train to travel, in this case to move between two of the imperial cities of Morocco, Meknes to Marrakech.

With 7 hours of trip approximately to our backs we came early in the morning to a tourist cities in the country and at the same time one of the most intriguing that we couldn't miss. Marrakech is also one of the most important cities of Morocco, is to the South of the country and at the foot of the Atlas mountains, to 466 mtrs. height. It has many monuments heritage of humanity, which make it the main attraction.

For our stay in the city, we decided to search accommodation downtown close to everything, we chose the Hotel Panorama Alien the square of Jamaa el Fna is the heart of the city and the most important place of the Medina. She develops the public life of Marrakesh both day and night.

The best of the square of Jamaa el Fna is the transformation that is going to suffer in the course of the day. Octavio and the small Álvaro can give good faith of insurance were the first to step on every morning. Dwarf about seven more or less played diana, dressed in a suffering Pope, caught the ball in one hand and in the other blonde and they went out to the plaza to play a few minutes while MOM was resting or preparing the backpack for daily excursion.

Only 4 years old blonde leaves no flutter through the square, chase through the streets of the Medina, play with sellers and fall in love with the women that sitting in the shade they decorated their hands by hand with henna.

Per day you will find many things which I will call the attention: from trainers of monkeys that you will rise up to charming snake charmers, acrobats, dentists exhibiting their latest pieces extracted through and as not the famous storytelling surrounded by young and attentive to their stories.

In addition to these curious characters in Jamaa el Fna square you will also find multitude of jobs of the rich and cheap natural orange juice, spices, mint and snails.

As it sunset, the square changes completely. The evening disappear stalls in the morning and be full of food stalls where to dine, musicians improvised and shows of different nature.

Dinner you can do it in the square posts, I must say that the food is not bad and the prices are fairly inexpensive. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed and in 2008 joined it in the representative list of the Intangible Cultural heritage of the humanity.

Note caution at the plaza, often traders who occupy only seek out tourists for money. So we must be careful for example, do photos without permission, to us we spent with a snake charmer, once you make them they ask for money in return, try always not to touch, and always ask the price of things before you try to scam.

We also recommend that you may enter any of the bars that have a terrace, from above the bustle of ir is appreciated much better and come from the people who walk through the square. Since they also can enjoy one of the sunsets more interesting in the world, that if you must go early to get a place is often filled with that reason.

For us one of the main attractions when we visited Arab countries is to walk and go shopping in the Medinas of Marrakech was declared by UNESCO as world heritage, and offers us an exotic Web of narrow streets and historic buildings.

Koutobia mosque, located near the famous square and the only mosque that well can be seen from any point of the city. Its beautiful Minaret of 70 m in height is visible from several miles around presenting a beautiful picture especially at night when lit. It presents the Minaret oldest and best preserved of the most relevant three built, including the Giralda in Seville.

The Medersa Ben Youssef, also known as the Ben Youssef madrasa, is the most important medersa and the oldest in Marrakech, winch it was organized in the Medina. For which I do not know what a merdersa (is a school or Muslim school of higher studies, which is specialized in religious studies).

It was built in 1565 to give service to the students of the nearby mosque with the same name, has 130 cells that allowed to stay up to 900 students. The Ben Youssef Medersa was built in the 12th century in honor of Sidi Ben Youssef Ali and was commissioned by sultan Abdallah al - Ghalib.

It is an impressive building and a clear example of Arab-Andalusian architecture, has undergone several restorations, what impresses most is its 40 meters tall stone minaret. It has a large patio with a central pool, massive columns, arches with decorations in plaster, zelliges mosaics, on the first floor you can visit the numerous cells where the students lived.

What most stands out of the Madrasah is the patio which I commented, with a swimming pool in the Center, there is where ablutions are done, the buildings are covered with an abundance of decoration: carved cedar wood, stucco colorful and exquisite zellij tiles. Some parts of the madrasa reminiscent of the Alhambra in Granada, this tells us that some artists who worked on the project were probably Spanish.

The best way to get from the square Djemaa-el-Fna square is going through all the souks, to the area of the City Museum, which is next to the madrasa.

The Palacio Badi (Palais El Badii), was built at the end of the 16th century by sultan Ahmed al - Mansour to commemorate the defeat of the Portuguese on Wed to Makhazin (the battle of the three Kings). Since it's currently completely in ruins, have to rely on the sheer size of your patio and the chroniclers of the time to get an idea of what came to be. "The Incomparable" (El Badii) was a Palace with more than 300 rooms decorated with the best materials of the era: gold, turquoise and glass.

The debacle of the Palace came at the end of the 17TH century, when the sultan Moulay Ismail decided to move the capital of Marrakech Meknes looting entirely the Palacio Badi.

Most of the mosques and palaces of the Medinas in Morocco are not open to non-Muslims, therefore the great attraction for tourists like us, lies in the souks ("suqs" in Arabic) which give color to the area and offer us a day of fun browsing among the many products and attractions typical of the country.

However, under our own experience, we leave you some tidbits to move for them.

The first thing you need to know is that you should not be concerned about security, Marrakech is a quiet town, Souk is very touristy and certainly delve into it without the company of a local or a tourist guide. For nothing we recommend hiring any of these companies for this type of visits, it is easy to move and sometimes the guides bring you only problems because you are where, when and how you want to.

With our handbags or wallets, we will have the same care as in any area of any city in the world. We advise women go inconspicuously dressed, not covered up to the ears, but not as we have seen them and we doubt dress up just to go to the market in his hometown.

Around the square are plenty of streets where you will find shops, there you will see how craftsmen work but remember that it is always best to ask for permission to photograph them because they may get angry. Different materials work here: leather, forging, wood... the possibility to buy a beautiful and colorful shishas, tables, lamps and other decorative objects, as well as hats, jackets, slippers, wallets, chillabas among many other things.

There is no purchase without haggling. You can train you in the art of haggling. At the beginning it is shocking and can even be stressful, but you'll gradually seizing the aftertaste, we always started providing 25% of the price that the seller asks, still negotiating until it agrees to charge you half or less of the initial price. Sellers are very persistent and can be a bit annoying, why should not ask the prices of things if we are not really interested. With language you will not have a problem with that you understand because they chapurrean Spanish and any other language in order to sell, often accept cash in euros but loses to change it out.

The tanneries, specifically these, we do not visit them because we had already done so in another city of Morocco, Fez, but no doubt we recommend the visit since it is fairly interesting, sure you will find someone who will be willing to accompanied and counted the tanning process. A Council brings you something to cover you nose the smell that really nauseating.

The afternoon another beautiful thing we can do is walk near its walls, with dusk falling on them its cinnamon color goes up intensity up to become an intense Orange, in the distance the Atlas mountains towering guarding the city rise.

Marrakech is a city unique and completely different from the rest, making tourism it is a new and fascinating sensory experience: the colors, flavors and smells that breathe from the moment that you step on it do not you forget easily.