3 Best Sights in Marrakesh, Morocco

This delightful, beautifully maintained public garden does not receive the attention it deserves. Paved pathways wind through cactus plantations, rose gardens, and exotic flowerbeds, past ornamental fountains, and through striking cascades of bougainvillea. It's the perfect escape from the city mayhem. 

This 19th-century palace is now a museum with an excellent collection of antique Moroccan crafts including pottery from Safi and Tamegroute, jewelry, daggers, caftans, carpets, and leatherwork. The palace's courtyard is filled with flowers and cypress trees, and furnished with a gazebo and fountain. The most extraordinary salon is upstairs; it's a somber room decorated with gibs cornices, zellij walls, and an amazing carved-cedar ceiling painted in the zouak style (bright colors in intricate patterns). Look for the prize exhibit, a marble basin with an inscription indicating its 10th-century Córdoban origin. The basin, which is sometimes on loan to other museums, was once given pride of place in the Ali ben Youssef Mosque in the north of the souk. It was brought to Morocco by the Almoravid sultan in spite of its decorative eagles and griffins, which defy the Koran's prohibition of artistic representations of living things.

The Menara's vast water bassin and pavilion are ensconced in an immense olive grove, where pruners and pickers putter and local women fetch water from the nearby stream, said to give baraka (good luck). The elegant pavilion—or minzah, meaning "beautiful view"—was created in the early 19th century by Sultan Abd er Rahman, but it's believed to occupy the site of a 16th-century Saadian structure. In winter and spring snowcapped Atlas peaks in the background appear closer than they are; you might see green or black olives gathered from the trees from October through January. Moroccan families swarm here during the holidays and weekends to picnic. Come prepared as there's little shade in the main walking areas.