10 Best Shopping in Marrakesh, Morocco

To get to the fabric and wool souk, use the Mouassine Mosque as a landmark, and keep the Mouassine fountain on your right while you continue until the street widens out with shops on either side. At the point where it branches into two alleys running either side of a shop selling handmade lamps and textiles, take an immediate sharp left turn. Follow that derb and look for the helpful word "teinturies" in spray paint and then head right. Souk des Teinturiers is also called Souk Sebbaghine. The main square for fabric dyeing is hidden down a little shimmy to the right and then immediately left, but anyone can (and likely will) direct you. Here you'll see men dipping fabrics into vats full of hot dye. Look up to see scarves and skeins of wool hanging all over, in individual sets of the same bright colors.

For the best view, head into the dyers' square and ask to be led into the boutique. A dyer can show you the powders that the colors come from. A lovely bit of magic involves the fact that green powder dyes fabric red; red powder dyes things blue; and yellow powder dyes things purple. Head up the steep stairs and onto the roof if you're allowed—a spectacular view of industry unfolds, with headscarves and threads of every color hanging up to dry in separate color blocks all over the rooftops.

Just a quick turn right and then left out of the Souk Lghzal (via Rue Souk Semarine) is the large square called Souk Rahba Qdima. This square is surrounded by small shops that sell everything from cure-alls to run-of-the-mill salt and pepper and just about everything in between. In the center of the square are lots of woven baskets and hats for sale. You'll also find ladies pounding henna leaves to create henna powder. If shopping isn't your for you, head to the rooftop of nearby Nomad for a glass of tea and a bird's-eye view.

The main carpet souk—called the Souk Zrabia or Le Criée Berbère—has a flat, shiny floor in the middle of the surrounding boutiques, to roll out the rugs to display to potential buyers. To get here head north on Rue Semarine, and just after the Souk el Attarine branches off left, take the next right turn off the street (which is now more properly named Rue Souk el-Kebir—the Big Souk Street). The carpet souk can also be reached from a passage in Rahba Qdima's northeast corner (to the right of Le Café des Épices).

At the northeastern edges of the souk (just beyond the northern end of the main Rue Souk el Kebir) are the leatherworkers—busy cutting out templates for those leather slippers called babouches, hammering and polishing, and making up bags and satchels from several types of animal skins. Look for signs to the Souk des Sachochiers (bag makers), Souk Chairia, and Souk Cherratine, all leather-working areas. The tanneries, where the raw hides have been prepared and dyed, are some 20 minutes' walk farther northeast from Souk Cherratine along Rue Bab Debbagh. Also in the northeast are a range of shops selling instruments, especially drums (Souk Moulay aii) and woven baskets (Souk Serrajine).

One of the easiest ways to head back to Djemâa el Fna from a day of souk shopping is to find Rue Mouassine, the souk's westernmost main north–south artery (the other main artery is Rue Souk Semarine, on the eastern side of the souks). Rue Mouassine is quite easy to find, and it's almost impossible to veer away from the correct path once you're on it; the simplest route is to take a counterclockwise loop from behind the Ben Medersa Mosque—when you hit the big mosque, you've hit Rue Mouassine. This is heavy souvenir territory, with the whole gamut of goods on display—lanterns, teapots, scarves, babouches, djellabas. The street spits you out into the northeast corner of Bab Fteuh square, and from there it's a short hop down to Djemâa el Fna.

Look for Fnac Berbère, the Amazigh bookshop, on the southern section of Rue Mouassine (the southern section from the fountain to Bab Fteuh square is sometimes known as Rue Fehl Chidmi). It's a good landmark.

Best approached by taking the main left fork onto Souk el-Attarine, where it branches off from Rue Souk el Kebir, and then continuing north for about 150 yards, the Souk Principal des Babouches—also called Souk Smata—is on the right-hand side and is filled with the namesake babouches, pointed leather slippers so beloved of Moroccans. The small doorway opens up to an enormous emporium with examples in every color imaginable.

It can be hard to judge the proper value of these fairy-tale leather slippers, because price depends on so many things, such as the thickness of the sole, the number of layers, the presence or absence of a stepped heel, and of course the decoration. Use your nose, but be warned that a fair price can vary from 60 DH to 400 DH, depending on quality.

Look for the tiny wool boutique on the left as you come to the arch before the right turn for the babouches market. It's on the way to the Souk des Teinturiers (Dyers' Souk). You can see men rolling out wool to make into fetching striped handbags, and, best of all, into small balls, and looping them up into the most unusual necklaces going.

Traditionally the market street for perfumes, essential oils, and spices, Souk el Attarine is one of the main left turns from Souk Semarine (as you head north), leaving the road at a "10 o'clock" angle. If this is as deep as you wish to explore in the souks, then you can make an interesting loop by walking as far as the entrance to the Souk des Babouches (on the right) and then soon after take a turn off left, passing through the wool-dyers' souk and heading to the Mouassine mosque. Turning left after the mosque you head back south eventually, down Rue Mouassine to rejoin Bab Fteuh square.

From Rue Souk el-Attarine, follow that main souk street as faithfully as possible and it will take you north, looping clockwise to the east, and through the ironmongers' souk, where you'll see blacksmiths at work, hammering out lanterns and wrought-iron chairs.

North of Djemâa el Fna on Souk Semarine, you pass a fairly prominent derb (alley) that turns off to the left (Rue R'mila Bab Ksour, also called Rue el Ksour). Take the next right turn and wander down a few yards (toward the Spice Square or Rahba Qdima) and on the right you will find the small square of Souk Lghzal, the Wool Souk. Today women sell secondhand clothes in the square, and the odd djellaba. Head over to the apothecary stalls leading up to the entrance to the square, and immediately to the right on entering it for spices and potions galore.

Souk Semarine is the main street that runs from Djemâa el Fna into deeper parts of the souk. If you're beginning your exploration here, you'll at first see a mishmash of products but as you go farther specialty items begin to appear: rug shops, fine wood crafts, and stalls selling dazzling lamps and lighting fixtures are prominent.

From Djemâa el Fna take the street just to the left of Café Argana, which leads into the small Bab Fteuh square, then keep bearing right. To the left there is a kissaria (covered market), with dried fruits, herbs and spices, essential oils, and traditional colored eye kohls. Veer right into the covered market, past a couple of stands selling teapots and mint tea glasses, and take a left onto Rue Souk Semarine. It's signposted and lined with fabrics and inexpensive souvenirs.