Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(cnr Rue el-Koutoubia & Ave Mohammed V; mosque & minaret closed to non-Muslims, gardens open
8am-8pm)
Five times a day, one voice rises above the Djemaa din in the
adhan (
call to
prayer): that's the muezzin calling the faithful from atop the Koutoubia Mosque minaret.
Excavations confirm a longstanding Marrakshi legend: the original mosque built by Al-
moravid architects wasn't properly aligned with Mecca, so the pious Almohads levelled it
to build a realigned one. When the present mosque was finished by Sultan Yacoub el-
Mansour in the 12th century, 100 booksellers were clustered around its base - hence the
name, from
kutubiyyin,
or booksellers.
While the Koutoubia serves a spiritual purpose, its minaret is also a point of reference
for international architecture. The 12th-century 70m-high tower is the prototype for
Seville's La Giralda and Rabat's Le Tour Hassan, and it's a monumental cheat sheet of
Moorish ornament: scalloped keystone arches, jagged
merlons
(crenellations), and math-
ematically pleasing proportions. The minaret was sheathed in Marrakshi pink plaster, but
experts opted to preserve its exposed stone in its 1990s restoration.
Douiria Derb el Hammam
MUSEUM
( 0524 38 57 21;
www.douiria.com
;
Fontaine Mouassine, Derb el Hammam; admission Dh30;
10am-6pm Sat-Thu)
House hunting in the medina Patrick Menac'h stumbled across a historic
treasure of great cultural significance beside the 16th-century Mouassine mosque. Beneath
the layers of white plaster of a modest 1st-floor
douiria
(guest apartment) emerged a jewel
of domestic Saadian architecture and decor, circa 1560, when the Saadians were busy
transforming Marrakesh into their Imperial capital. The other major projects of the period
are all grand in scale - the mosques at Mouassine, Bab Doukkala, Ben-Youssef and Sidi
Bel-Abbes. But this bijou
douiria
was created by a
chorfa
(noble) family after the Saadi-
ans relocated the Mouassine Jews to the
mellah
and gave the city a new dynamic.
The Douiria in its restored form is thus an important commentary on the courtly art of
hospitality. Imagine the mindset of travel-weary guests as they entered the main salon
with its symphony of colours; flowers and birds in saffron, verdigris and apricot climb the
walls in a vertical garden, while bedrooms are trimmed with sculpted Kufic script framed
by azure blue and finished with a fine Pompeian red skirting. You'll assume this is the
handiwork of the 24-man restoration team, but no, the colour and decor are uniquely and
amazingly original, their vibrancy preserved for four centuries beneath thick layers of
plaster.
