March 20-22
Back from the Sahara, we had just two more nights before we had to head back to Casablanca. We stayed at a new ryad, hoping it would be a bit quieter than the last. Here are a few pictures to show you what these ryads look like. Really beautiful but still inexpensive to stay there.
There were a few things that we wanted to crank out before leaving. First we visited the Saadian Tombs which were constructed during the late 16th century. The Saadian Dynasty ruled in Morocco from 1554 until 1659 and almost nothing remains from their reign except these tombs. When the dynasty fell to the Alaouite Dynasty, the new Sultan wanted everything from the Saadians to be wiped out but refused to touch the tombs. Those he sealed off and the tombs remained hidden until 1917 which means that they were really well preserved even before their restoration.
The tombs have three rooms that has 60 members of the family buried there. Staff and servants were buried out in the garden.
This is the main room – the Hall of the Twelve Columns.
Tomb selfie – weird? Definitely.
After the tombs we stopped at Bab Agnaou, the most elaborate gate in Marrakech. It served as the entrance of the palace in the Medina in the 12th century. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We definitely stood in the middle of a busy street to get that photo. Safety first.
The last stop on our historical tour of the Medina was El Badi Palace which are the ruins of a palace built by the Saadian Sultan after victory over the Portuguese in 1572. It was intended to be the most important building in Marrakech, so he named it “Incomparable”. The palace had 360 rooms and a courtyard that was 135 meters by 110 meters filled with fountains and a huge pond.
Most of the palace was paid for by a reparation debt imposed on Portugal after the war. The mosaics came from Italy and the gold fittings came from goldmines in Sudan. After the Saadian dynasty fell, the new Sultan removed anything of value to decorate his new palace and El Badi slowly fell into ruins.
We then headed back towards our ryad to grab some lunch when we happened upon this hammam. Ok – it’s not a real hammam – it’s a spa that offers the same services as a hammam but in a more tourist friendly atmosphere.
Anyone who wants to hear these stories can ask about them offline and I’ll give you all the details. In general – really good experience.
So that’s basically it. We had a lot of time, relatively speaking, in Marrakech and we loved it. This is definitely a city that we will be coming back to visit in the future.