Our last stop in magnificent Morocco was the Red City of Marrakesh. Although the city has only been around for 1,000 years, the area has been home to Berber farmers since the Neolithic Age. Marrakesh feels very different from the other Moroccan cities we visited. A bit further inland and flat, Marrakesh sprawls across the arid landscape with the grand, snowcapped Atlas Mountains as a backdrop. It feels like a desert, like being somewhere in the Southwest in the U.S.
Our hotel was a nice quiet place on the edge of town just a short walk from the train station. To get around, we used either taxis or the red bus tour. Unfortunately, the bus tour was not up to par with others I’ve utilized. The audio guide did not work, so it was really just an expensive bus. However, it helped me get a lay of the city and make a plan for where to go and how to get there.
Theatre Royal
I spent most of our first day in Marrakesh exploring the city by foot by myself as my travel companion rested in the hotel. The flat terrain made walking very easy. If you have a map, you’ll be fine for most of the city. I walked from our hotel in search of Jardins Majorelle (Majorelle Garden), the famous cactus garden of Yves Saint Laurent. On the way, I peeked in the Theatre Royal and enjoyed the newer French-style architecture of the Gueliz neighborhood.
From the outside, the theater looks dated with a kind of North African homage to neoclassical architecture. It has a columned entrance with more Egyptian or even Art Nouveau style than classical. The large dome is punctuated with a bit like that of a hammam (traditional Turkish bath). It feels old and stale. However, the inside is magical! I went inside during the day while the lights inside were off in the grand entrance hall, but it was still flooded with light from the perforated rotunda and other well-placed windows. The shadows and light played with one another in many mystical ways depending on your point of view.
Ironically, a hotel’s website with information about the theater says that the inside “is not so grand” as the outside, which it calls stunning. I beg to differ. The traditional design features executed on a grand scale provide opulence and a grand presence. I wish I could have popped my head into the opera house or walked the gardens with the amphitheater, but those were closed. The building does need some maintenance and restorative efforts, but it is still a wonderful piece of design, on the inside.
Majorelle Garden
Designed and built by Jacques Majorelle, a French painter, these lovely gardens and their brilliant blue villa evoke luxury as an oasis in this bustling Moroccan city. Majorelle first moved to Morocco to recover from an illness in the early 20th century. He lived in Casablanca and then Marrakesh. He then traveled Northern Africa and the Mediterranean. However, his heart stayed in Morocco’s Red City, so that’s where he settled and lived most of his life.
In 1923, after getting married, he bought a plot of land at the edge of a palm grove. He built a traditional Moroccan home, which now gets lost in the shadow of the blue cubist villa he commissioned from Paul Sinoir. Over time, Majorelle expanded his garden and cultivated it very carefully. He called it his greatest work. After an auto accident, the painter returned home to France for medical treatment and eventually died in Paris from complications.
The Garden’s Restoration
Majorelle’s garden was an expensive endeavor, so in 1947, he opened his masterpiece to the public for a small entrance fee. After he left Morocco, his garden and home fell into disrepair. In the 1980s, fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge purchased the property and began restoration efforts. The garden, which had been opened to the public by Majorelle to help defray costs, was reopened after restoration and now includes museums in the buildings.
Unfortunately, the museums were closed during my visit. The Berber Museum in the villa really interests me as does the Islamic Art Museum. Both feature collections of textiles, art, and jewelry from Morocco and its traditional cultures.
The Garden
Majorelle’s garden features mostly, palms, cacti, and succulents. There are tall armed cactuses. Massive agaves burst from the ground. And, extensive padded cacti fan out like flat trees. Despite the tendency toward drought-tolerant plants, the garden also has bamboo groves and several water features with lilies.
Saint Laurent’s ashes were scattered in the garden after his death in 2008, and a small memorial stands in the garden to him. Other garden structures include a covered koi pond with colorful pots on its walls, a lovely pavilion at the end of a water channel that leads to a fountain in front of the villa, and a pergola-covered water feature behind the villa.
The Villa
Honestly, it is the villa that completes the garden and makes it a destination. The building glows like a gem in the Majorelle Garden with its brilliant blue walls and yellow accent features. The cubist architect incorporated some Moroccan elements into his design making it truly unique. Majorelle, inspired by blue tiles he experienced in southern Morocco, created the blue color, which is named after him. Perhaps just as striking as the color, the shadows playing with light on the building make it a magnificent place for photography. However, it can be a bit crowded.
Menara Gardens
Another garden I visited on day one in Marrakesh is the Menara Gardens. Located in the southwestern area of the city, near the airport, this large garden is essentially a big olive grove. Established nearly 900 years ago, water from the mountains waters hundreds, maybe thousands, of olive trees through a sophisticated underground irrigation system. At the center of the garden a large rectangular basin collects and distributes the water. At one end of the basin, simple concrete bleachers allow visitors to rest and marvel at the mountain-backdropped Menara reflecting in the water.
The Menara is not a lighthouse as the name suggests. Built in the 16th century by the Saadi dynasty, a 19th century sultan summered there. I didn’t go inside because it cost an extra fee to enter the villa, which from what I read online or could see from the gate, wasn’t worth the high price to visit.
Between our hotel and the Menara Gardens were many restaurants, a mall, and the Palais des Congres, Marrakesh’s first convention center, which hosted the creation of the World Trade Organization. I also found a lovely chocolate-themed restaurant. Beyond taking the double-decker bus through town, I didn’t make it into the heart of the city until our last full day in the country. That’s when we explored the Marrakesh medina with its gates, tombs, palaces, and the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa square. More about this in a coming post!
