Historic City of Meknes: A Guide for Tourists

The City That Tried to Be Versailles

Sultan Moulay Ismail came to power in 1672 with an explicit ambition: to build an imperial capital that would rival the palace complex Louis XIV was constructing at Versailles. He moved the seat of his Alaouite dynasty from Fes to Meknes and spent the next five decades doing exactly that. The labour force he assembled is not a comfortable detail - over 25,000 Christian captives and tens of thousands of enslaved people and convicts cut stone, hauled materials, and built walls that still define the city today. The marble columns flanking the Bab Mansour gate were taken directly from the Roman ruins of Volubilis, 30 kilometres to the north. Moulay Ismail had no qualms about cannibalising one grand empire to build another.

The resulting city was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. What makes it worth visiting now, beyond its scale, is its livability. Unlike Fes, whose medina can feel like a managed tourist experience, Meknes is first a working Moroccan city and second a heritage destination. That imbalance works in your favour.

Getting There

Meknes sits roughly 60 kilometres west of Fes and 130 kilometres east of Rabat. The train is the most reliable option. ONCF operates frequent services from Casablanca (around 3 hours), Rabat (around 2 hours), and Fes (45 to 55 minutes). The Meknes train station is outside the medina; a petit taxi to the Bab Mansour area costs 15 to 25 dirhams.

From Fes, a bus or shared grand taxi is faster for a day trip. Grand taxis depart from near the Fes train station toward Meknes when full, taking around 45 minutes and costing roughly 25 to 30 dirhams per seat.

If you want to combine Meknes with Volubilis and Moulay Idriss in one day, a private driver or organised group tour from Fes makes more practical sense than stitching together public transport, since Volubilis is 30 kilometres from Meknes and not served by direct public buses.

Bab Mansour: Note on Current Status

Bab Mansour is the largest and most ornamented gate in Morocco. Built between 1732 and 1740 - completed after Moulay Ismail died - it uses columns taken from Volubilis and is covered in zellij tilework and carved stucco. It faces El Hedim Square and is the symbolic centrepiece of the imperial city.

As of late 2025, Bab Mansour was under renovation and partly covered in scaffolding. Verify current access conditions before visiting. Even partially obscured, it is worth seeing; the scale and the detail of the upper panels remain visible. Entry to the gate area is free.

Heri es-Souani: The Misunderstood Monument

Most guides describe Heri es-Souani as the royal stables of Moulay Ismail, but this is not accurate. The complex, measuring 182 by 104 metres, was the imperial granary - a fortified storehouse designed to supply the palace and army through a prolonged siege. Grain was delivered by mules that climbed to the roof and dropped sacks through openings in the vaulted ceilings. Underground cisterns kept the floor temperature low enough to preserve provisions for years.

The actual royal stables were roughly 600 metres southeast of the granary, and Moulay Ismail was obsessive about them: historical accounts record that two enslaved people were assigned to each of his 12,000 horses. The granary and stables together were the logistics backbone of an army the sultan deployed across Morocco and into the Sahara.

Today Heri es-Souani is one of the most atmospheric ruins in Morocco. The vaulted corridors - many now roofless, creating strips of sky above the stone - extend in repetitive grandeur that photographs cannot quite convey. Entry costs around 10 dirhams. A small cafe at the adjacent Bassin de l’Aguedal (an ornamental reservoir the sultan built to supply his gardens by aqueduct) makes it a reasonable place to rest before moving on.

Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail

The sultan’s mausoleum is one of the few active religious sites in Morocco that welcomes non-Muslim visitors. The entrance hall is elaborately tiled and carved; the inner sanctuary containing the tomb is accessible only to Muslims, but the anteroom alone justifies the visit. Entry is free. Hours are generally 9:00 to 18:30 Monday through Friday, with a midday break on Saturday and Sunday; these hours shift slightly during Ramadan.

El Hedim Square

El Hedim Square functions as the breathing room between the medina and the imperial quarter. It is quieter than Marrakech’s Jemaa el-Fnaa and does not have the organised chaos of performers that makes Jemaa el-Fnaa simultaneously exciting and exhausting. Street food stalls set up in the evenings. Locals use it as a gathering place in a way that tourist-heavy squares tend to lose. Arrive around 19:00 and sit somewhere on the perimeter; the light on Bab Mansour at that hour, scaffolding or not, is worth the wait.

Dar Jamai Museum

Dar Jamai is a late 19th-century vizier’s palace converted into a museum of Moroccan arts and crafts. The Andalusian garden in the courtyard is one of the better-kept in northern Morocco. The collection focuses on local crafts: carved wood, zellij tilework, embroidery, and ironwork. Entry is modest. It is worth 45 minutes of your time especially if you are not planning to visit the Dar Batha museum in Fes.

The Souks and Medina

The Meknes medina is less labyrinthine than Fes and less self-consciously touristic. Prices in the souks tend to be lower for the same reason. The covered market streets around Rue des Souks and toward the Kaat el-Bali quarter sell the usual range of leather goods, spices, and textiles. The Meknes region produces olives and olive oil commercially; buying a jar of locally pressed oil from a food shop in the medina is both cheap and sensible.

Volubilis and Moulay Idriss

Volubilis, 30 kilometres north of Meknes, is the best-preserved Roman archaeological site in Morocco. Founded in the 3rd century BC, it served as the western capital of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana. The mosaic floors in the villas, particularly the House of Orpheus and the House of the Acrobat, are in remarkably good condition given they have been exposed for decades. Entry costs 70 dirhams for adults. The site is extensive; allow at least two hours. A petit taxi from Meknes to Volubilis takes around 40 minutes; negotiate a return fare before you leave.

Moulay Idriss, a few kilometres from Volubilis, is one of the holiest towns in Morocco, containing the shrine of Moulay Idriss I, founder of the Idrisid dynasty and a direct descendant of the Prophet. Non-Muslims cannot enter the mausoleum itself but can walk the hillside town, which is notably serene and photogenic compared with its pilgrimage significance. Until 2005, non-Muslims were prohibited from spending the night here; that restriction has been lifted.

Practical Information

Getting around: Meknes is walkable between the medina and imperial quarter. The Heri es-Souani is roughly 2 kilometres from Bab Mansour; it is an easy walk or a very short petit taxi ride.

Cash: Dirhams are essential. ATMs are available near the main square and train station. Most medina shops and smaller restaurants are cash only.

Food: Meknes is known for mesfioui (slow-roasted lamb seasoned with cumin and preserved lemon), b’ssara (a broad bean soup eaten at breakfast with olive oil and paprika), and briouats (small pastries filled with cheese, meat, or almond paste). The restaurants around El Hedim Square cater more to tourists; better and cheaper food appears in the small local eateries one street back.

When to visit: April to June and September to November offer the most comfortable temperatures. July and August can push above 40 degrees Celsius in midday; if you visit in summer, confine sightseeing to mornings and late afternoons. Meknes does not draw the same volume of visitors as Fes or Marrakech, so there is no particular season to avoid on crowd grounds alone.

Meknes tends to be underrated precisely because it sits between Fes and Rabat and most itineraries use it as a half-day stop. If you give it a full day and include Volubilis, you will cover some of the most historically dense ground in North Africa without fighting tourist crowds at every corner. Two nights in a riad here instead of a second night in Fes is a legitimate and underused alternative.