El-Faiz slams the authorities for allowing construction in the city’s hinterland without any semblance of urban planning. He particularly singles out the development of the agricultural fields north and west of the medina and, despite a 1929 ban, construction within the city’s fabled palm groves. Today, some of the most luxurious tourist resorts are located within a dwindling sea of palm trees. And while the Atlas Mountains serve as a giant water reservoir, due to the enormous hike in the number of inhabitants, tourists, swimming pools and golf courses, Marrakesh’s water table has fallen significantly.

From rural to urban. Finally, the small farmers who traditionally occupied the rural zones around the city, growing vegetables and raising life stock, have all but vanished. According to el-Faiz, these douars formed an integral part of the city’s social fabric, and this symbiosis between urban and rural formed much of Marrakesh’s beauty. As the demand for land soared, however, farmers were relocated. Today many of them live in the satellite city of Taha-naoute, some 30 kilometers south of Marrakesh.
The relocation fits with Morocco’s nationwide “Cities without Slums” program, under which 120,000 social housing units are to be built annually. The government offers inhabitants of the poorest urban and rural areas an incentive of about $5,000 to move to these buildings. Despite the good intentions, the program has come under severe criticism, since slums are symptoms of underlying problems such as poverty and unemployment. Today, the douars of Marrakesh may have a decent place to live, but they no longer have land to work on.

An overwhelming body of travel literature on Marrakesh has been published in the last few centuries. With the arguable exception of George Orwell, who saw only poverty and French oppression, nearly all writers focused on the city’s exotic wonders. Today, sincere travel writers can no longer ignore the urban sprawl that has surrounded the medina’s ancient defense walls. It is a city of tree-lined boulevards, Paris-style coffee shops, fitness clubs and air-conditioned hotels; a city that has more in common with the tourist nirvana of Spanish Marbella, than the old Marrakesh.

With the city thoroughly reorganized to attract tourists, property developers have already set their eyes on the foot of the mighty Atlas Mountains, a half-hour’s drive from the old city. One of the medina’s countless real estate agents had the first results on offer: Three modern-style villas with a pool and a British lawn. The price? A mere 500,000 euros.

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