Now we move from exploring big dramatic monuments to diving into the fascinating streets and alleys of the medina.
The souks
The old town, or medina, of Marrakech is famous for its dizzying tangle of narrow streets and seemingly endless number of shops and stalls. These are the souks. We can’t imagine how any visitor found their way before Google maps.
Unlike the winding paths of Venice, more than just pedestrians barrel through these streets. There is a constant flow of motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, tuktuks, delivery trailers, and even donkey-pulled carts. The treble sounds of scooter horns are incessant. You can’t float along in an oblivious mall-walking state here!
Presented with so many shops selling shoes, or ceramics, or perforated metal lamps, or rugs, or leather bags, or jewelry — and on and on — we assumed that most of what’s on sale comes from big factories elsewhere and perhaps from places like China. Maybe that’s true a bit, but we discovered that most of what is on sale has been crafted by artisans right here in the souks, as well as in other neighborhoods of greater Marrakech.
Some examples:
Ben showed us a little plaza that is the home of daily auctions of smaller unfinished leather pieces.
Around this plaza, artisans cut, stamp, form, and embellish the leather to make shoes, bags, belts, and more.
We visited Souk El Haddadine, which is a little district where metalworkers were doing everything from welding to forming and perforating metal. We loved this description on a panel sitting in the middle of all sorts of metal working:
I am known as the place to go for wrought iron, where one can hear the sounds of iron being worked from the adjacent alleyways. It is a deafening noise, and there are pieces of metal everywhere. Artisans in the small workshops lined up across from one another on the small main street work the red-hot iron into all sorts of shapes, be they straight, curved, or twisted. Craftsmen here traditionally manufacture interior and exterior household windows, door locks, spindles, animal cages, farming tools, and more. The range of what they make has expanded and is now more oriented toward an urban and tourist clientele. Decorative ironwork is therefore an extension of traditional ironwork that now includes various products such as lounge furniture, tables, chairs, beds, screens, balustrades, staircase handrails, consoles, lamps, garden furniture, modern furniture, and more. The artisans here are very creative and every day push the boundaries that separate craftsmanship from design with great boldness and skill.
Here’s a little metalwork shop with the master and the apprentice.
A bit for show to attract visitors like us, this man spins a little lathe with his foot. Behind him is an array of wooden objects, many of which are inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
Recently dyed yarn hangs out to dry as well as to entice other local artisans who buy it for weaving and carpet making.
At one of the many herboriste shops (herbs, spices and other natural materials), we saw a block of white mineral about the size of a big fist. We asked what that is for, and the answer is it is alum, which is used to fix organic pigments in yarns, textiles and leather.
One early morning, we came upon this single thread suspended in front of a long line of closed shop stalls. A man proceeded to stretch a couple more down the street. This is “cactus silk” which is neither from cactus nor is it silk. It comes from Saharan Aloe Vera, which is a kind of agave. Through an involved process of soaking, pulling, drying and spinning, artisans create these thin threads. What the man on the street was doing was preparing to twist several of these threads together to create usable yarns for weaving. He can only do this in the early morning before the line of shops opens.
There are many stalls that showcase glazed and decorated pottery. On the way to the Jardin Majorelle, Ben arranged a stop at a pottery district on the outskirts of the city. In addition to his tour guide business, he buys and renovates riads(courtyard houses); he knows very well the building-material suppliers around town and wanted to show us a couple of his sources.
We visited one of the ceramics companies in the district. Unfortunately, we weren’t permitted to take photos. We found a few focused workers in various well-lit rooms. This wasn’t a sweatshop type of environment at all. People were for the most part painting glaze patterns on raw ceramic bowls, plates, cups, and the like. The raw pottery in this shop comes from Fez were the clay is particularly light in color. We realized that most of the decorated pottery available in the souk is made in artisan centers like this one. There is really a lot of pottery for sale in Marrakech, which means there are a lot of skilled artisans working intently all around the city.
Daily bread and dinner
On two occasions, Ben stopped suddenly amid the market stalls to lead us into a dark nondescript doorway.
The first was this neighborhood oven.
As it has been for generations, one family owns and runs the communal oven. Families in the neighborhood bring their dough, and this baker bakes it here. The families pay in cash, or with some of the baked bread from their dough, which the baker in turn can sell to others. These shared ovens are hidden all over the medina.
Another stop was at the top of a tight set of rough stone stairs that descended down from street level. This place is the furnace that heats water for an adjacent hammam, or communal bath. On the ashes of the wood fire of the furnace, ceramic jugs contain meat, vegetables and spices. These are called tanjia (which is different from the conical dishes called tajine). Families prepare these jugs of stews and deposit them in the morning. The food cooks slowly all day long, cared for by the people responsible for the hammam furnace. The families return in the evening after a long day at work to collect their fully cooked and healthy dinner.
Earthquake
Perhaps you recall that in 2023 Morocco suffered from a 6.8 earthquake. The toll was immense; around 3,000 people died. Many buildings collapsed in and around Marrakech. What was particularly frightening about the impact of the earthquake was that not all the destroyed buildings fell during the actual earthquake. Many crumbled days later without warning.
From the initial perspective of us oblivious tourists, the medina seemed fresh and vibrant as if nothing had happened only a couple years ago. But, with Ben’s help, and then more obviously as we acclimated, we could see clear evidence of damage everywhere.
Here, you can see the decorated rooms that the earthquake laid bare. Ben commented that these houses seldom have any insurance. They may also be owned by various members of a family who can’t agree on what to do with the damaged property.
Storks and cats
During our first trip to Marrakech, we learned that the region is a favored wintering place for European storks. We saw a few huge stork nests, but no storks.
In the fall of 2024, we visited Alsace in France. This region has nests for migrating storks as well, perhaps some for storks from Morocco. But, again, we didn’t see any storks.
On this visit to Marrakech, this stork showed itself to us atop its nest. We also saw storks flying above the rooftops of the medina.
Marrakech is a city of cats. There are cats and kittens everywhere. They roam the streets, and for the most part, they look relatively healthy. It turns out that they are more than welcomed for reasons not so different from what was true in ancient Egypt. In Egypt, desert cats overcame their distrust of smelly humans because they found so many rats and mice chowing down on stored grains. Egyptians encouraged the cats to keep the vermin population as low as possible. In Marrakech, it isn’t grain that attracts vermin; it’s all the tasty natural fibers that make up the fabrics and carpets of the souk.
On two evenings, Ben led us around the medina to sample Marrakechi street food as well as signature dishes. We visited during the season of Ramadan. Many people in Marrakech fast during the day. After sunset, they break the fast in stages. First step are light things like juices and fruit. Then a couple hours later, the family gathers for a dinner. During our two evening food strolls around the medina, we started light and then finished in restaurants. We’ve combined the two tours together here.
After street-food stops, we sat down in restaurants for dinner. Remember that we ate all this food in the course of two evenings!
First evening, we ate in a rooftop restaurant.
At the second evening’s restaurant:
March 2025