Guide to the Medina of Marrakech: A Captivating Journey Through Morocco’s Vibrant Heart

Jemaa el-Fna just got a new floor, and locals are furious about it

A 160-million-dirham renovation of Jemaa el-Fna square wrapped up in phases between May 2025 and January 2026, and the reaction online has been mostly negative: residents complain the new paving material looks flat and generic, out of step with a square that’s also inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list for its storytellers and performers. Authorities also banned vehicles, trucks, and carts from the square after 1pm and relocated the plant and mint vendors to Arsat El Bilk to cut down on daytime congestion. If your last visit predates 2025, expect the square itself to look and feel noticeably different, whatever you think of the new stonework.

The Medina’s real age is more layered than it first appears

Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almoravid ruler, founded the city in 1062, and the medina’s tangled street plan has stayed largely intact since. But don’t take every building’s stated age at face value. The Ben Youssef Madrasa gets described everywhere as a 14th-century college, and there was a Marinid-era madrasa on the site founded under Sultan Abu al-Hasan in the 1330s and 1340s. The building tourists actually walk through today, though, was commissioned by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib and completed in 1564 to 1565, making it a 16th-century structure standing on a 14th-century footprint. At its height it housed up to 800 students, the largest Islamic college in the Maghreb, and it closed in 1960 before reopening to visitors in 1982.

What to see and what it costs now

Ben Youssef Madrasa opens daily from 9am to 7pm, with admission around 50 dirhams for foreign adults and 10 dirhams for children under 12; tickets are cash-at-the-gate only, with no online booking. Bahia Palace runs roughly 100 dirhams per adult and is worth pairing with the madrasa on the same day since both sit within walking distance of each other in the northern medina. Koutoubia Mosque remains closed to non-Muslims inside, but its minaret, the model for Seville’s Giralda and Rabat’s Hassan Tower, is worth circling on foot at dusk when the call to prayer echoes across the square. El Badi Palace is now largely a stripped shell, its gold and onyx long since carted off to Meknes centuries ago, but the scale of the ruins alone tells you how wealthy the Saadi dynasty briefly was. The Saadian Tombs, rediscovered only in 1917 after being sealed off for roughly three centuries, still draw a long queue given how small the actual chambers are, so budget standing time, not just entry time.

Timing your visit to dodge the worst of it

Go between 8am and 10am if you want the souks without shoulder-to-shoulder foot traffic; midday in high season turns the main lanes into a slow shuffle. Weather-wise, March to May and September to November give you daytime temperatures in the low-to-mid 20s Celsius, well short of the punishing 40-plus-degree heat that hits in July and August. For a version of the medina that feels less staged, walk past the main souk corridors running off Jemaa el-Fna and turn into the smaller side alleys, where you’ll find working carpenters, blacksmiths, and dyers rather than shops aimed squarely at tour groups.

Practical advice worth following

Dress modestly, shoulders and knees covered for everyone, not just women, since this eases interactions throughout the medina, not only at religious sites. Carry small-denomination dirhams for the souks, since haggling moves faster with exact change than with a large note you’re waiting on someone to break. Getting lost in the smaller lanes is genuinely part of the experience, but keep a mental note of which gate or landmark you entered near, since the medina’s walls run for kilometers and one wrong turn can cost you thirty minutes rather than five. Drink more water than feels necessary; the heat inside the walled medina, with its dense stone and narrow shaded lanes, deceives you into thinking you’re cooler than you are.