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El Badi Palace
Marrakech, Morocco · Palaces & landmarks
An Apollonaut travel guide
A city shaped by making.
An introduction to architecture, materials and the cultural life of Marrakech, from the medina’s streets to the rooms of Bahia Palace.
On this page
Read the city as a living place
UNESCO describes the Medina of Marrakesh as a living historic town, with lanes, homes, souks and traditional trades. Its significance includes everyday urban life as well as individual monuments.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how a doorway meets a street, how a route changes scale, or how people use a shared space. Respect privacy, working businesses and places of worship.
Materials carry knowledge
Tilework, lime plaster, carved wood and ironwork are crafts still practised in Marrakech, and restoration depends on them.
Begin with a material and ask how it is made, repaired and used. A photograph alone cannot tell you who made an object or the conditions in which they worked.
A Bahia chapter
Bahia Palace brings a late 19th-century chapter of Marrakech into view: the residence of two grand viziers, built around courtyards and gardens.
Look at the meeting of materials and spaces: a painted ceiling above carved stucco, a carved door onto a planted riad, and the change in light as a room opens towards its courtyard.
Make room for context
Pair the city reading with the palace’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these buildings, commissions their restoration or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
