A brief history of Marrakech

It is called the pearl of the South or the red city. It is the one that gave its name to Morocco and that carries a large part of the country's international image. A brief history of Marrakech……

Marrakech is located at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. If it is undoubtedly the tourist capital of the kingdom, it is only the 4th largest city in the country, after Casablanca, Rabat and Fez.

The city was founded in 1062 by Youssef Ibn Tachfine, the first king of the Almoravid dynasty. Several dynasties followed one another, each leaving to posterity monuments and sites of oral and material heritage of great value.

In its current configuration, the city is divided into two distinct parts:

The Medina, surrounded by high walls for nearly 10 kilometres, is the historic centre of Marrakech. We stay in magnificent traditional houses transformed into hotels or guest houses. Thus the gardens of the Medina were a princely palace before being built in the early 2000s to accommodate the public. It is in the medina that we find the souks so appreciated by tourists as well as the Jemaa El Fna square which carries the international image of Marrakech. Its narrow streets intertwined like a labyrinth and the thousands of shops make visitors happy and change of scenery. Symbol of the city, the minaret of the Koutoubia mosque dating from the 12th century is visible for miles. But the Medina is much more than a tourist area. A significant proportion of the population continues to live there.

Marrakech is also the new city whose main districts are called Guéliz and the Hivernage. Today, the Guéliz is the commercial city centre. It was founded by the French during the Protectorate. The Hivernage district is home to many hotel complexes.

In addition to these two new but "historic" districts, there are now also peripheral areas that are growing at high speed as population growth requires. Thus the city is constantly expanding, especially towards the West, with the appearance of many new residential districts.

Marrakech now has nearly a million inhabitants united by a quality and a way of life that the whole world envies us !