2 Best Sights in Marrakesh, Morocco

The open square market at the center of the medina is Marrakesh's heartbeat and a UNESCO World Heritage site. This centuries-old square was once a meeting point for regional farmers and tradesmen, storytellers and healers. Today it's surrounded by bazaars, mosques, and terraced cafés with balcony views over the action. While it’s relatively quiet during the day, food stalls and performers begin to appear in the late afternoon. 

Djemâa el Fna comes to life at night when it fills with a variety of performers enticing locals and visitors alike. Gnawa dancers sway clanking their krakebs (castanets) and strumming on traditional guitars while traditional storytellers regale locals with tales from the past. By sunset the square is full, and smoke rises from the makeshift stalls that are set up every evening and offer grilled meats on paper-lined tables. 

All day (and night) long you can get fresh orange juice from the green carts that line up around the square, starting at 4 DH a glass. You can also pose for a photograph with one of the roving water sellers (you'll be expected to pay at least 10 DH for the privilege), whose eye-popping costumes carry leather water pouches and polished-brass drinking bowls---we don't recommend drinking from the offered cup of water. Or snack on sweet dates, apricots, bananas, almonds, sugar-coated peanuts, and walnuts from the dried fruit–and–nut stalls in the northwest corner. It’s a festival atmosphere every night of the week!

It's worth noting that while these days this is a wonderful bazaar, once upon a time the Djemâa's purpose was more gruesome: it accommodated public viewings of the severed heads of sinners and criminals. Djemâa actually means "meeting place" and el Fna means "the end" or "death," so as a whole it means something along the lines of "assembly of death" or "meeting place at the end of the world."

Watch out for pickpockets and be wary of ladies here offering henna applications as they're not always aboveboard.

The vast labyrinth of narrow streets and derbs at the center of the medina is the souk—Marrakesh's marketplace and a wonder of arts, crafts, and workshops. Every step brings you face-to-face with the colorful handicrafts and bazaars for which Marrakesh is famous. In the past, every craft had a special zone within the market—a souk within the souk. Today savvy vendors have pushed south to tap trading opportunities as early as possible, but the deeper in you venture, the more you will be rewarded by better prices and by seeing artisans at work---metalworkers, carpenters, tailors, and cobblers just to name a few. Look for incongruities born of the modern era. Beside handcrafted wooden pots for kohl eye makeup are modern perfume stores; where there is a world of hand-sewn djellabas at one turn, you'll find soccer jerseys after the next; fake Gucci caps sit beside handmade Imazighen carpets.

As you wander through the souk, take note of landmarks so that you can retrace your steps without too much trouble. Once the shops' shutters close, they're often unrecognizable.

The farther north you go the more the lanes twist, turn, and entwine. Should you lose your way, retrace your steps to the busiest thoroughfare and then look for the brown painted signs (usually found at key intersections) indicating the direction of Place Djemâa el Fna. But mostly you'll rely on people in the souk to point the way. If you ask a shopkeeper rather than a loitering local, you'll be less likely to encounter a "faux guide."