It's my first full day in Marrakesh and I'm fully organised to go through my itinerary. Armed with Google Maps and 3g, I feel ready to tackle all the sights of interest without a hint of a tourist map.
The first stop is Palais El Badii. A palace commisioned by Sultan Ahmas al-Mansur. Thought to originally contain 360 rooms, ow there are not and it's mostly occupied by storks and stray cats. All that really remains here is the walls of the former palace, the terrace, the courtyard, the jail and two exhibitions. Here's a view of the palace from the terrace:
The terrace is nice mainly because this vantage point for views of the area. Not so high up to be able to see the whole city, but high up enough over the rooftops as far as the eye can see. A good place for a panoramic photo shot:
The first exhibition is literally an exhibition. A single item, the Koutoubia minbar and it costs 10 Dirhams in addition to the palace entrance fee. Its a good thing labels and descriptions are in English as well as French and Arabic, otherwise I would have felt royally stiffed. Then there's also an unconnected museum exhibiting portrait photography.
Inside the palace there's a small underground, tunnel like prison where the Sultans kept his prisoners:
Next up Tombaux Saadiens, the burial place of the kings of the Saadien dynasty. Only a 10 minute walk from the Palace. On the way, I spot a sign to the tomb. A look at google maps and indeed it looks like a shortcut. A shortcut passing through tourist shops it turns out. I curse myself for my naivety, but a shortcut to the tomb nevertheless. There's a few guides standing around the entrance to the tomb, although I'm not sure why anyone would want a guide for this or why anyone would think it possible to make a living out of this since. There's certainly a tomb there and not much else. The queue to see the tomb:
And the tomb .....
Third stop of of the day is Bahia Palace retracing my steps from the preceding stoos. It does look look much from then outside, situated as it is on a busy street filled with plebs and shops aimed at said plebs. It looks like there's large queue to get inside, so I'm optimistic that this will be good:
Once inside, arrows direct visitors to all the rooms in an anticlockwise direction. A hint perhaps that the tourists should leave as quickly as they arrived. Can't say I was exactly blown away by the place, but impressive from an artistic point of view with it's intricately carved roofs and archways, and of course the all too typical geometric shapes so beloved of Islamic artists. This is a situation where my general refusal to take a guide has backfired. Built for the Sultan's Grand Vizier Si Moussa, to house his Harem. Set in 8 hectares and taking 14 years to build, it would have been interesting to hear the whole story. But without any signage inside, it can be pretty hard to glean information from the visit.
The Bahia Palace is next to the Mellah, the walled part of city designated as the Jewish quarter. Analogous to European Ghettos, the Jewish population were confined here up until the 19th century. Now there's not an obviously Jewish person to be found. I'm told that only a dozen or so Jewish families still living in the Mellah. Everyone else having moved to Isreal and other places. It's also a great place for any photograher to lose themselves in. Everything gives off local ambience, a real authentic taste of the old city. Not much like the ham it up for the tourist parts of Marrakech. I think one or two Hobbits also live here:
It's also a good place to have some lunch and try out some authentic local food at authentic local prices. As I sit fiddling with my phone, it's apparent im starting to attract a small group of kids. At first I thought this was going to be another round of, let's annoy the Chinese looking guy. Then I could just make out the excited chatter of "hatch tee see" as the they gather round to take a look. I guess they don't get many HTC phones around these parts. Take a good look kids, because if Apple and Nokia get their way, you be reminiscing about this day into your retirement.
The remainder of my iteinerary for the day are the Marrakech Museum, Ben Youssef Madrasa and the Almoravid .
Even though there's no exhibit at the madrasa, al the rooms are laided out around a courtyard and it's not hard to imagine students lived here and learn the Quran:
The Almoravid Koubba, a small Almoravid building dating from the 11th century and only remaining Almoravid architecture in Marrakech:
By the end of the day, only a day and a half day so far in Marrakesh, I'm already tired of hearing "Konichiwa", "Japan", "Korean" and tired of saying "Non, je suis Ecosse".
