Marrakech Like a Local

Gueliz is the modern city, built in the French Protectorate era along Avenue Mohammed V and Rue de la Liberte: wide boulevards, art deco buildings, galleries, cafes and restaurants. Young Marrakchis meet here for coffee, office workers lunch here, and the shops sell at fixed prices.

The MACMA (Musee d’Art et de Culture de Marrakech) shows Moroccan modern art. Grand Cafe de la Poste, a colonial-era landmark, serves French-Moroccan food. Supermarkets in Gueliz show what everyday goods really cost.

The Mellah, Marrakech’s historic Jewish quarter, is one of the quieter parts of the medina. It was established in 1558 under Sultan Moulay Abdallah. Few Jewish families remain, but the architecture tells the story: wooden balconies, narrow lanes, and the Lazama Synagogue (Slat al-Azama), restored with painted ceilings around a central courtyard.

The Miaara Jewish Cemetery holds thousands of whitewashed tombs. The Mellah’s spice market is calmer than the central souks.

Narrow lanes around the 16th-century Mouassine Mosque and its public fountain of carved cedar and zellige. The quarter’s fondouks, old caravanserais where traders stored goods and stabled animals, now house artisan workshops, galleries and concept stores.

Le Jardin Secret is a restored riad with two gardens, one exotic and one Islamic, and a tower with views over the medina. The lanes between the Mouassine fountain and Dar el-Bacha (now the Musee des Confluences) are lined with artisan shops and galleries.

A working neighbourhood around the Bab Doukkala gate where locals come to eat, and where you can find tanjia, the slow-cooked meat dish of Marrakech. Seasoned beef or lamb is sealed in an earthenware urn and cooked for hours in the ashes of a hammam furnace. Food stalls near the gate serve it with fresh bread.

The Bab Doukkala Mosque dates from the 16th century. Around Rue Bab Doukkala are bakeries for fresh khobz (bread), pastry shops selling cornes de gazelle and chebakia, and juice stands for orange and avocado juice.

An industrial zone on the edge of the city where warehouses and factories have become design showrooms, concept stores, furniture workshops and ateliers. Prices are fixed and displayed, with no haggling.

Marrakchis start the day at small neighbourhood counters with msemen (flaky semolina flatbread), harira soup, beghrir (spongy pancakes with honey) and fresh orange juice. Look along Riad Zitoun el-Kedim, near Bab Doukkala and in the lanes off Derb Dabachi for small shops where locals crowd the counter. For a sit-down breakfast, the cafes on Avenue Mohammed V in Gueliz serve msemen with honey, amlou (almond and argan spread) and coffee.

Tanjia is the dish of Marrakech, traditionally a bachelor’s dish made by men: beef or lamb with preserved lemon, garlic, cumin, saffron and smen (aged butter), sealed in a clay urn and slow-cooked for hours in the ashes of the hammam furnace. The meat falls off the bone into a rich, concentrated sauce. The stalls at Bab Doukkala serve it with fresh khobz.

Riad Zitoun el-Kedim and Riad Zitoun el-Jedid, the two streets running south from Jemaa el-Fna, have local food stalls that most tourists walk past: kefta sandwiches, snail soup (babbouche, a Marrakech favourite on cold evenings), fried fish, potato and egg sandwiches, and sfenj (Moroccan doughnuts).

Before the souks, walk round a supermarket such as Marjane or Carrefour to see what things cost in Morocco: argan oil, ras el hanout, saffron, olive oil, amlou and tea. With those prices in mind, you can bargain in the souks from a position of knowledge.

The neighbourhood hammam is a social institution, a place to relax, talk and get clean. Spa-like tourist hammams cost from 200-600 MAD; a local one costs a fraction of that. Bring your own savon beldi (black soap), kessa glove (exfoliating mitt) and towel, all sold in spice shops. Inside are rooms of increasing heat. You scrub yourself or pay an attendant. Men and women have separate hours or separate hammams; ask your riad.

The souks nearest Jemaa el-Fna charge the most. The deeper you go into the medina, towards Bab Doukkala, Bab Debbagh (the tannery quarter) or the Mellah, the closer prices get to what locals pay. Start low and be willing to walk away: there are many shops selling the same things.

Petit taxis (small beige cars) are metered and cheap for trips between the medina, Gueliz and the train station. Insist on the meter (compteur); fares are higher at night. City buses link the medina with Gueliz and the outskirts. Grand taxis (shared larger cars) go to outlying areas and the airport. Skip the caleches (horse carriages), which are priced for tourists.

Parc Lalla Hasna lies beside the Koutoubia Mosque, between the medina and Hivernage. In the evening it fills with families, couples and groups of friends, and street vendors sell corn on the cob, candy floss and roasted almonds. Watching the sunset light on the Koutoubia minaret from the park costs nothing.