Time stands still in Marrakesh, so they say, and some things indeed have not changed since Morocco’s southern capital was the beating heart of an empire that stretched from Niger to Spain. Snake handlers, storytellers and palm readers still try to please the crowds at Djemaa al-Fna, a large open square that gives way to the red-walled medina. “Hashish, hashish?” someone hisses as they pass by. Smells of couscous and kebab mix with those from more obscure delicacies such as snail soup and roasted sheep head. The feast of the senses is completed by the infectious rhythms of the gnaoua, the white-gowned percussionists thought to be descendants of African traders who once decided to remain in “the Rose amidst the Palms.”

Youssef ibn Tachfine founded Marrakesh at the foot of the Atlas Mountains in 1071. Spurred on by the Islamic faith, Tachfine and his desert warriors conquered most of Morocco and part of Spain, establishing the Almovarid Empire. And the former garrison post of Marrakesh became the capital.
The city reached its zenith in the 16th and 17th centuries under Saadian rule, when Ahmad al-Mansour took Timbuktu, and thus control of the lucrative caravan routes reaching far beyond the Saharan sands. Fuelled by the riches of the ancient trade routes, Marrakesh became a melting pot of cultures: an Arab and Berber city with an African pulse.

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