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Travel Guide: Marrakech, Morocco

Marrakech consists of an old and new city which often overlap. The Medina is crowded, interesting, and historical, full of winding alleys, souks to shop and bargain at, and the famous Jamaa El Fna Square and Koutoubia Mosque. Prayer bells sound five times a day, and you can feel the energy of faith.

Shikha Kaiwar 20 Apr 2022

In the taxi ride from the airport, the first thing I said was that Marrakech looked like Palm Springs, and I instantly regretted it. Sure, both are flat cities bathed in ruddy pink sandstone and nestled underneath mountains. But while Palm Springs is a city built to appease tourists and Instagram, Marrakech is full of history spanning wars and generations. To compare it to Palm Springs is to disrespect its origins and to make myself feel more comfortable so I can acclimate. But that's not fair to Marrakech, or to any place. And I violated my golden rule of travel:

Don't compare a place to to any other. Instead, try to understand this place for what it is.

Marrakech is an ancient city made slightly less ancient by French colonisation. When they took over the sultanate in 1912, they brought with them sweeping changes in schooling, language, and cuisine. French became mandatory to learn, and French cafe culture seeped into the country. Morocco became independent in 1956, but remnants of colonial rule are everywhere. Signs are written in English, Arabic, and French. Restaurants serve crepes and croissants. A main attraction of Marrakech is the Yves Saint Laurent museum, a Western styled building paying homage to the late designer's love affair with Morocco and his "avant-garde" redesigns of caftans. These are accolades given by Europeans without much of a thought as to whether Moroccans even wanted a redesign of their own clothing. It's an interesting museum, but one that seems to suggest that Moroccan culture is only worth paying attention to when it's modernised to Western ideals.

But I'd be lying if I didn't benefit from the French colonisation. My working knowledge of French makes it easier to bargain and be taken seriously (a taxi tried to charge us 100 dirham...we paid 20). And I enjoyed a daily glass (or three) of Moroccan wine, a burgeoning industry thanks to French investment. Unlike America, which freed itself from colonial rule hundreds of years ago, Morocco is still experiencing the after-effects of it, which in turn shaped my own experience when visiting. I kept searching for the old Morocco.

L to R: Entrance to our riad; view of the Atlas mountains

Nearly everyone speaks Arabic to each other except Moroccan Jews, for whom French is their primary language. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of Moroccan Jews left, as they got persecuted over time, one of the biggest being during World War II. When Israel formed in 1948, most of them left to live there, and today, Moroccan Jews are the second largest community in Israel.

The indigenous Berbers speak their own languages, some of which are designated as official languages by the government, but many know French as well. When I asked our driver how Moroccans felt about speaking French, he said that they don't care for it. Apart from the required learning in school, people don't identify with the French people nor language, preferring to speak Arabic or else English. "English is the more useful language now," he says, leading me to wonder if the English language is a form of colonisation in itself.

If people feel that they need to learn English to move up in the world, is that effectively erasing their old culture?

Marrakech consists of an old and new city which often overlap with each other. The Medina is most crowded, interesting, and historical part, full of winding alleyways, souks to shop and bargain at, and the famous Jamaa El Fna Square and Koutoubia Mosque. Prayer bells sound five times a day, and whether you're religious or not, you can feel the energy of faith.

The newness seeps in little ways—rooftop bars everywhere, palaces converted into luxury hotels. While the town square looks exactly the same as it did in the 1880s (see my note on the Maison de la Photographie below), the offerings have changed. Vendors cater more to foreigners, hawking light-up plastic toys and charming cobras and pythons brought in from the Sahara. While certainly delightful (and a bit scary depending on your tolerance of snakes), I kept wondering what these markets were like before me, before the French, before people knew Morocco was even a place to visit.

When you do visit Marrakech (and you should!), know that it's a small city full of beauty, bustle, and bewilderment. Pay attention to the small things as well as the big things, and take the time to explore outside of the city too. As in most places, life outside of the city is where you often see a place for what it is. And in Marrakech, you get the privilege of exploring either the beaches of Essaouira, the mountains of Toubkal National Park, or even the dunes of the Sahara if you plan properly. I've listed my recommendations below for paid subscribers—if you're interested, sign up and I'll send them all to you personally!