Morocco: Fez, Marrakech, Meknes, and Rabat

Destination: Morocco

Travel guidebook summary

A comprehensive travel guidebook to the best of Morocco’s inspiring art and architecture. Explore fantastically-decorated city gates, grand mosques, and jewel box madrasas in Fez, Marrakech, Meknes and Rabat.

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★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Essential guide to key sites in Morocco
Don’t leave home without it! It begins with generous introductory material about the architecture and decoration seen in Morocco. Monuments in 6 cities are well described with maps and highlighted closeup photographs. I found the * rankings very helpful to prioritize the most important sites to see with limited time and learned about some gems only through this guide

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Message from the author

“Touring Morocco, what struck me most was the fusion of its art and architecture, drawing strongly on traditions from Andalucian Spain and the Middle East. With this guidebook, we emphasized the historical reasons for these connections and tried to help travelers recognize these fusion elements on location. I hope our readers find it as fascinating an exercise as I did.”

Jennifer Raezer | Founder & Author, Approach Guides

Morocco: About this Guidebook

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Guidebook Description

Four imperial cities — Fez, Marrakech, Meknes and Rabat — hold a magnificent collection of Islamic art and architecture, the legacy of seven dynasties that have controlled Morocco for over 1,200 years. With towering minarets that call the faithful to prayer, multi-colored glazed ceramic tiles that recreate the flora of Quranic paradise and stucco decoration that affords the impression of infinity, Morocco offers visitors an experience like no other. It is yours to discover.

What’s in this guidebook

Comprehensive look at Morocco’s art and architecture. We provide an overview of Moroccan art and architecture, isolating trademark features that you will see again and again as you make your way through the country’s highlights. To make things come alive, we have packed our review with high-resolution images.
A tour that goes deeper on the most important sites. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we offer a detailed tour of the premier sites in each imperial city, from fantastically-decorated city gates, to grand mosques, to jewel box madrasas. For each site, we present information on its history, a detailed plan that highlights its most important architectural and artistic features, high-resolution images, and a discussion that ties it all together.
Advice for getting the best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook supplies logistical advice, maps and links to online resources. Plus, we give our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location.
Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intuitive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Watch Before You Go

ART & ARCHITECTURE OF MOROCCO
Al-Andalus Provides a Foundation

Architecture

Mosques
Madrasas
City Gates
Minarets
Horseshoe Arches
Courtyard Fountains

Decoration

Tile, Stucco and Wood
Common Motifs
Muqarnas
Inscriptions

TOURING ITINERARY

Monument Timeline

TOUR OF RABAT & SALÉ

Hassan Mosque *
Bab Rouah
Bab Oudaia *
Chellah Necropolis
Bab Mrisa (Salé)
Abu al-Hasan Madrasa (Salé)

TOUR OF MEKNES

Bab Mansour *
Bou Inania Madrasa*

TOUR OF FEZ

Bou Inania Madrasa *
Kairaouine Mosque *
Al-Attarine Madrasa *
Nejjarine Fondouk
Cherratine Madrasa
Andalous Mosque
Al-Sahrij Madrasa*

TOUR OF MARRAKECH

Koutoubia Mosque *
Koubba Ba’adiyn *
Ben Youssef Madrasa *
Bab Agnaou
Saadian Tombs
Badi Palace
Tin Mal Mosque (Daytrip) *

TOUR OF CASABLANCA

Hassan II Mosque *

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Call to Prayer

Moroccan Dynasties

Idrisid Dynasty
Almoravid Dynasty
Almohad Dynasty
Marinid Dynasty
Wattasid Dynasty
Saadi Dynasty
Alouite Dynasty

Our Recommendations

Hotel and Restaurant Recommendations
Where to Stay, Eat and Shop
Packing List

About Approach Guides

Additional Info

Extras to enhance your trip

Video

Watch our video on Morocco’s art & architecture