Marrakech: the medina done slowly, ending on a rooftop at the adhan

Marrakech

1. 8:30 am1

   Mint tea on the terrace at Cafe des EpicesMarrakech

   Rahba Kedima is the spice-and-apothecary square and it belongs to the traders until about ten. Take the top terrace, not the street tables. Nothing here needs to be bought yet; you are learning the square so that later, when a man tells you the souk is closed today for a Berber festival, you already know he is lying.

   5 min walk · 350 m
2. 9:30 am2

   Ben Youssef Madrasa in the first half hour it is openMarrakech

   Doors at 09:00, 50 MAD. The reason to be here at 09:30 rather than 11:00 is the central courtyard: the pool reflects the whole zellige wall until the first coach group breaks the water's stillness by leaning on the edge. Then go up the narrow stair to the students' cells on the first floor - almost nobody does, and the cell windows frame the courtyard better than the courtyard does.

   7 min walk · 500 m
3. 10:40 am3

   Souk Semmarine up to the dyers' lane, with nobody attached to youMarrakech

   How to shed a faux guide: do not answer, do not say no thank you, do not slow down, and never let him name a destination for you. The ones who attach themselves are working on the fact that a polite tourist will engage. Keep walking north with the flow of handcarts and you will surface at the dyers' lane where the wool hangs to dry. If you do get lost, ask a shopkeeper standing inside his own shop - he has nowhere to lead you.

   5 min walk · 400 m
4. 12 pm4

   Le Jardin Secret and the view from its towerMarrakech

   100 MAD for the two gardens; the tower is a separate small supplement and is the only reason to bother in the middle of the day - it is the one place in the old town where you can see how the medina is built out of courtyards you never get to see into. Sit in the Islamic garden afterwards; the exotic garden is the one everyone photographs and the quieter one is better.

   5 min walk · 350 m
5. 1:15 pm5

   Lunch on the fourth floor at NomadMarrakech

   Book the day before or you will be told 21:00. Ask for the top terrace rather than the covered floors. Modern Moroccan rather than a tagine you will get four more times this week, and the calamari and the sardine dish are the ones to have. Sun hits the terrace hard at 13:00 - ask for the far corner under the reeds.

   13 min walk · 950 m
6. 3 pm6

   Bahia Palace after the coaches leaveMarrakech

   100 MAD, open to 17:00. The tour buses run Bahia between 10:00 and 13:00 because it slots between the two other palaces; from 15:00 the small riad courtyard and the harem apartments empty out. Go anticlockwise from the entrance so you finish in the great courtyard rather than starting in it. The painted cedar ceilings are the point and they need the low afternoon light.

   11 min walk · 800 m
7. 5 pm7

   Saadian Tombs, then out through Bab AgnaouMarrakech

   Ten minutes' walk from Bahia. The queue for the Chamber of the Twelve Columns is single file and it is the whole visit, so if it is thirty deep at the door, skip it - the garden of tiled graves outside is genuinely the better half and costs the same. Leave through Bab Agnaou, the carved blue-grey gate, rather than back the way you came.

   13 min walk · 950 m
8. 6:45 pm8

   Le Salama's roof as the muezzins startMarrakech

   This is the whole reason the day is ordered this way. Aim to be seated fifteen minutes before maghrib - roughly 18:20 in winter, past 20:30 in midsummer, so check the day's time and move this stop with it. The Koutoubia minaret calls first and the smaller mosques answer it across the square, one after another, while the food stalls below light their gas. Ask for a table on the parapet side; the interior tables see nothing.