Marrakech means "land of God" in Berber and was the Berber name for the whole country. "Morocco" more or less comes from a French bastardization of Marrakech.
Before heading out to meet Said for the morning, we went up to the rooftop terrace of our hotel.
Off to one side was this crazy thing in the tree. It was full of birds.
Some street art and also a marker that we are near our hotel's alleyway.
A small open area between all the alleyways. And also a marker for the way back to our hotel.
This is the central minaret. No building is allowed to be taller than it.
I like the combination of door and window sizes. It's very Three Little Bears or something.
The Majorelle Garden is the most visited place in Marrakech.
It was created over 40 years by French artist Jacques Majorelle.
It was opened to the public in 1947.
Majorelle would sometimes paint in this pavilion.
The irrigation canal that runs through the garden.
Decorations on the pavilion.
We had lovely weather for visiting the garden.
Bamboo with a fish pond.
Little fishies!
A bamboo walkway.
This was the house and studio of Majorelle. It is now the Berber museum.
Dan very much liked it because it is blue.
This is the Yves Saint Laurent memorial. YSL took over ownership of the garden (with Pierre Bergé) in 1980. When YSL died in 2008, his ashes were scattered in the garden.
Crazy climbing cactus.
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I tried to get the garden to line up with the information placard.
So that inquiring minds could figure out what all the plants are.
If you haven't noticed by now, the garden is beautiful.
We were lucky we came in the morning and there weren't many other visitors.
This is my favorite photo from the garden. It's the pergola bridge over the lily pond.
The lily pond.
This funny little bird made all sorts of crazy sounds.
So many plants and colors!
I liked the way the light shone through these cactus needles.
Some cacti up close.
A blue fountain!
The colorful Majorelle residence and studios.
So many cacti!
I don't know what kind of cactus this is, but it looks mean. It's so angular and pointy.
Another pergola walkway.
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YSL and PB continued to expand the cactus garden in homage to Majorelle.
Weird nubbly cactus.
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This cactus had pleasing striations on it.
Anther view of the pavilion through the bamboo.
Here's an overview of the garden if you didn't click the link at the beginning.
Goodbye beautiful garden!
Outside of the garden was a little souvenir shop. Mom wanted to get a cookbook. She picked one out and showed it to me and it was in English. So she purchased it and we went about our way. We stopped at a bank to get money and while Dad and I were in the bank, Mom discovered that somehow, despite having had an English version book, she managed to accidentally purchase a French copy. Maybe we can exchange it on our way out tomorrow.
Here we met our guide for Marrakech, Abdul.
This mosque was built in the 12th century in the Roman style. It used to have stalls here for booksellers. It's how the mosque made money. This is the second mosque built in Morocco.
Utility poles disguised as palm trees.
Marrakech life near the mosque.
Abdul took us to the Saadian Tombs. The tomb houses the graves of members of the Saadi dynasty, most notably members of Ahmad al-Mansur (sultan from 1578-1603).
The tombs are also known as the Silent Tombs.
These wood carved doors are gorgeous.
Flat tombs are women, sculpted tombs are men.
There are no names on the tombs. All are equal in death....unless you're royalty.
Then you get a big tomb. But still no names.
The graveyard also had lovely gardens in it.
Muslims are buried on their side rather than their back.
When less lofty graveyards are filled, it is closed. A new graveyard is opened far away from the closed one. In 40 years they go through the closed graveyard, find any remains that are still in tact and move them. They then build over the old cemetery.
Male bodies are prepared by men and female bodies are prepared by women. The body is washed and wrapped in white cloth. There are no cremations.
Even the tombs have lovely geometric details.
Morocco used to trade with Italy - sugar for marble, kg for kg.
In case you were wondering where some of the marble used here came from.
Fun with shadows!
We left the tombs to continue our tour of Marrakech.
Cats in a truck!
Traditional Moroccan doors are double doors.
Friends and family knock on the door itself. Strangers used the door knocker.
The roadways/alleys are kept narrow to provide shade in the medina.
Marrakech, like Fes, also had a Jewish district. It's known as the Mellah.
The synagogue facade.
A cute store.
A donkey in the market.
You cannot sell any products from animals you don't eat. You also cannot eat carnivores.
Another view of the market.
It is forbidden to make the Moroccan flag or a photo of the king fall. People put flags and photos on old buildings that they don't want knocked down. This prevents them from being knocked down.
Our next stop was the Bahia Palace.
The entrance has a walk through a garden. Islamic gardens should be productive as well as beautiful. They are regularly full of herbs, spices, produce growing, and medicinal plants.
These girls were super intrigued with this cat.
The palace was built in the 19th century.
A map of the palace. We came in from the southern point through the garden.
Bahia means "brilliance."
The palace was built over 14 years using Morocco's best craftsmen and artisans.
Floor mosaics!
The Arabs believe in the architecture style of "mind your own business." It is rare to be able to see through one room into another either because of layout or because of doors.
The palace construction started in the 1860's by Grand Vizier Si Moussa.
Carving details from the courtyard.
In the early 1900's the French disposed the local ruler and placed their own person here instead.
Details from some of the wood paintings.
The total palace covers eight hectares.
The palace was built in two stages.
A beautifully decorated ceiling.
A set of beautiful archways.
Door details.
Interior windows. The doors and windows are used to control airflow.
Pocket window shutters!
A funny difference between the French and the Arab way of thinking is that the French would say this room is dark, but the Arabs would say it is shaded.
Another courtyard.
You can see large scale double doors here.
The big ones are open in the Summer and the little ones are used in the Winter.
Courtyard walkway ceiling details.
Look how gorgeous theses ceilings are!
One of the rooms off of the little courtyard.
Another beautiful window.
Room details.
These were the rooms of the French ruler in residence.
They are considered to be decorated simply.
This is the only closet type thing I ever saw in Morocco.
French dude's ceilings.
This guard is not chosen. Not yet anyway....
These patterns are known as sunflowers. Sunflowers are symbols of royalty.
Some last details of the palace before heading into the souks.
Scarves of every color!
The souks were packed with things for sale.
Marrakech is sometimes known as the "Ochre City."
Random street art!
This is a passageway between two neighborhoods.
More random street art!
Look at the details of this random door.
You can find anything for sale in the souks.
Cats in trucks, cats on scooters, cats everywhere!
Another gorgeous door.
Even the banks have cool patterns.
A shopping district that isn't the souks.
This is Jemaa el-Fnaa, the main square in Marrakech.
The souks were also narrow, but luckily not overly crowded.
And another beautiful door.
Abdul got us back to Jemaa el-Fnaa and left us to our own devices.
So we decided to get lunch at one of the rooftop terrace restaurants.
This guy is a water seller. Traditionally he would sell water to thirsty travelers. Copper cups are for fellow Muslims, ceramic cups are for non-Muslims. Now they are mostly here for tourists.
This sign was on the stairs at our lunch spot. We found it amusing.
We decided to go shopping after lunch. We got some gifts, a lamp, a dagger, and some other odds and ends. Lots of bargaining happened. Dan was very good about saying no and too much and eventually got the price down quite a lot.
We, surprisingly, did not get lost going through the souk back to our hotel.
We paid Said in cash for the tour. I have never had so much money at once. It was all in small denominations too. It'd be like having a $500 in ones and fives.
Oh! This is the room lock for our door at the hotel. It amused me.
Mostly metal geometric shapes from around Marrakech.
We relaxed a bit before going out to explore Marrakech on our own.
So many beautiful details!
We went back into the souks to look for a geocache. The cache was in this store. The owner was very friendly and happy to see geocachers.
A geocache!
A lovely minaret.
That same random street art character. I don't know what it's all about though.
Somewhere along the line while looking for another geocache, we asked someone for directions and ended up going on a wild hike through Marrakech. We ended up outside of the standard tourist areas, which was interesting in its own right.
We wandered around a bit and got a little more lost and finally found our way, with some aid from a small boy, back to the main square.
The square had really come to life as the sun went down.
Many of the empty space had become food vendors.
This is a carnival like game. I'm not sure how it worked, but it looked interesting.
Dad said he wanted to get some orange juice, as there are many juice sellers. Well we thought he wanted to go to the #1 cart (each cart has a number). So we wound through all the vendors looking for #1 Orange Juice. It turns out each different food type had its own set of numbers, ie #1 Orange Juice, #1 Restaurant, #1 Snails, #1 Desserts, etc. Turns out Dad didn't care what orange juice stall, he just wanted some juice. We finally acquired juice and it was delicious.
The same shopping district as before, but now at night!
Mom decided she wanted to take a carriage ride into modern Marrakech, so we did.
The central minaret.
A light-up fountain roundabout.
Grand Casino Mamounia.
A fancy pants hotel.
The carriage ride through modern Marrakech was interesting, but super smoggy.
After the carriage ride, we went to #1 Restaurant - #1 Aicha.
The street food was quite tasty.
To finish off our adventures in Marrakech, we got an assortment of cookies/desserts from a dessert cart. The vendor was very silly.
This concludes our adventures for today.
