Morocco Attractions

Marrakesh

Marrakesh is above all a city of drama. Its spectacular setting against the snow-capped High Atlas Mountains lingers long in the minds of most travellers, and the famous Djemaa el-Fna square provides perhaps the greatest open-air spectacle in the world.

Be drawn back into a world of frenzied motion, where jugglers and storytellers jostle for position with snake charmers, magicians and acrobats. Your nose will guide you to row upon row of open-air food stalls whose pungent smoke fills the air with mouth-watering aromas.

Fez

The great novelist Amin Maalouf writes of uncovering Fez's layers 'veil by veil, like a bride in her marriage chamber', and though most visitors resemble bashful bridegrooms on their first day in town, they're usually pretty swift to get into the connubial swing of things here.

In the medina, you can watch an elderly master craftsman show his young grandson the proper way to hand-stitch a leather babouche (slipper), buy fresh rose pedals or get lost in labyrinthine lanes that have barely changed in a millennium. Fez is an experience as unexpected as it is extraordinary.

Rabat

The fourth of the imperial cities, Rabat is a curious mix of a long past and a highly modernised present. In the 12th century, the then sultan used the kasbah (citadel) as a base for campaigns against the Spanish. It was during this time that the city's most famous landmarks sprang up.

A haven for Muslims driven out of Spain in the early 17th century and a capital city only since the days of French occupation, Rabat's ambience comes from Islam and Europe in fairly equal proportions. For every place of worship there are three or four European-style cafes.