The World Through Gabor's Lens

29/08/2026

27/08/2026

A riad is a traditional Moroccan house built around an internal courtyard or garden. Today many riads in Marrakech have been converted into small boutique hotels, but originally they were private family homes.

The most interesting thing is their architecture. From the street, a riad can look almost completely plain and windowless. You enter through a relatively modest door and suddenly find an elaborate courtyard with fountains, orange or lemon trees, carved plaster, cedar wood and colourful zellige tiles.

This inward-looking design is intentional. It reflects both Islamic ideas of privacy and a practical response to the climate. Thick walls and the shaded courtyard keep the building considerably cooler during Marrakech’s hot summers. Rooms generally open onto the courtyard rather than onto the street.

The word riad (رياض / riyāḍ) literally relates to a garden. Traditionally, the courtyard garden was often divided into four sections, sometimes with a fountain or water basin in the centre—a design influenced by the Islamic concept of the paradise garden.

Riads were particularly associated with wealthier merchants, officials and prominent families in the Medina. The decoration was concentrated inside the house rather than displayed externally: wealth was something experienced privately rather than advertised on the façade.

Many historic houses deteriorated during the 20th century as wealthier residents moved from the Medina to newer neighbourhoods such as Guéliz. From the 1990s onward, foreigners and Moroccan investors increasingly bought and restored them, creating the enormous riad/boutique-hotel industry you see in Marrakech today.

27/08/2026

Jemaa el-Fnaa is the huge central square at the heart of Marrakech’s old city (Medina), and probably the city’s most famous place. What makes it special is that it isn’t really a conventional “square”—it’s more like a constantly changing open-air theatre and marketplace.

During the day, you’ll find orange-juice stalls, spice and traditional-medicine sellers, henna artists, musicians and various street performers. You may also see snake charmers and people displaying monkeys.

Around sunset, the square transforms completely. Dozens of food stalls appear, smoke rises from grills, and groups form around musicians, dancers and performers. Due to this nightly transformation UNESCO recognized the “cultural space of Jemaa el-Fnaa Square” as Intangible Cultural Heritage

I understand that the exact origin of Jemaa el-Fnaa (جامع الفنا) is disputed. Jemaa can mean “assembly” or “mosque,” while fna is associated with disappearance, extinction or death. Consequently, it is sometimes dramatically translated as “Assembly of the Dead.” One theory connects the name with public executions that once took place here.

25/08/2026

The Ben Youssef Madrasa (Medersa Ben Youssef) is one of Marrakech’s most beautiful historic buildings and was once the largest Islamic college in Morocco.

Built in its present form in the 16th century under the Saadian dynasty, it was connected to the nearby Ben Youssef Mosque. For centuries, students came here to study the Qur’an, Islamic law, theology and Arabic, and as many as several hundred students could live and study in the complex.

What makes it spectacular is its architecture. The central courtyard is surrounded by extraordinarily detailed zellij mosaic tiles, carved cedar wood and sculpted stucco, with Arabic calligraphy covering many surfaces. In the middle is a long reflecting pool that makes the courtyard feel surprisingly peaceful despite being in the middle of the Medina.

One of the most interesting parts is upstairs: there are around 130 tiny student rooms, some extremely small and dark. Students often lived very simply, sometimes several sharing a room, while the architecture of the communal and religious spaces was exceptionally elaborate.

A famous inscription above the entrance essentially says:

“You who enter my door, may your highest hopes be fulfilled.”

The madrasa stopped functioning as a religious college in 1960 and is now a historical monument. After a major restoration, it reopened to visitors in 2022.

24/08/2026

On the road from Marrakech into the Ourika Valley, one passes through a number of traditional Amazigh (Berber) villages in the foothills of the High Atlas.

Many villages are built from rammed earth, clay and stone, which is why the houses seem to blend into the reddish-brown mountains. Traditionally, houses were designed around extended-family life, often with animals and storage areas on the lower level and living spaces above.

The inhabitants are predominantly Amazigh, the Indigenous peoples of North Africa. In this part of the High Atlas, many people speak Tashelhit (Shilha) as their first language, alongside Moroccan Arabic, and increasingly French and even English.

Our driver stopped at a so-called “traditional Berber village”, where we were shown bread making, mint tea, household rooms and argan-oil production. It was interesting, but seemed more like tourism business rather than untouched village homes.

The valley still has genuine agricultural life though: families grow olives, walnuts, fruit and vegetables, and livestock remains important. Villages historically relied heavily on the Ourika River and irrigation channels for farming.

24/08/2026

The Ourika waterfalls are in the High Atlas Mountains above the village of Setti Fatma, around 60–70 km from Marrakech. They are actually a series of seven waterfalls, reached by hiking up the rocky valley from the village.

The first waterfall is the main destination and relatively accessible, although the trail includes steep, rocky and sometimes slippery sections. Reaching the higher waterfalls requires more climbing and is considerably more demanding.

What makes Ourika special is it’s setting: dramatic Atlas peaks, a rushing mountain river, Amazigh villages, small bridges and restaurants with tables set right beside—or sometimes literally in—the river.

23/08/2026

I found this picture (quality of the photo of the photo improved by AI) in the restroom of a restaurant that now occupies the building of Marrakech’s old train station (Gare de la Medina). An interesting choice of place to tell the story of the city’s Jewish community—especially in a city where virtually none of that once-thriving community remains today.

Jewish life in Morocco stretches back more than 2,000 years, long before the arrival of Islam. Over the centuries, Morocco became home to one of the largest and most culturally important Jewish communities in the Muslim world. After the expulsions from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, thousands of Sephardic Jews also found refuge here, joining older indigenous Jewish communities.

The relationship between Jews and Muslims was complex. There were long periods of peaceful coexistence, cultural exchange and mutual dependence, but Jews did not historically enjoy equal legal status. Under Islamic rule they generally lived as protected non-Muslim subjects, while also facing restrictions, special taxes and, at certain times, persecution and violence.

🏘️ In many Moroccan cities, Jews lived in a mellah, a distinct Jewish quarter (i.e. the ghetto in our terminology). The first mellah was established in Fez, while in Marrakech Jews were concentrated in their own mellah from the 16th century. These quarters helped preserve a strong communal and religious life, but often also became overcrowded and reflected the Jews’ separate and sometimes vulnerable position in society.

💰 Jews played an important role in Moroccan society and the economy. They were artisans, gold- and silversmiths, merchants and traders, and some served the sultans as commercial agents, diplomats and intermediaries in international trade. In Marrakech, the Saadian rulers specifically employed Jewish merchants as trade agents and entrusted Jews with the management of local industries. At the same time, many Moroccan Jews were far from wealthy: large numbers lived as small craftsmen, peddlers or in poverty.

🕍 Marrakech became an important centre of Jewish learning and culture. Its community included prominent rabbis, Talmudic scholars and kabbalists, and families such as the Corcos and Pinto families became influential far beyond the city. By 1912, around 15,700 Jews lived in Marrakech, rising to more than 25,000 in the 1930s

But the history was not always peaceful. Jews experienced periods of expulsion and persecution, particularly under the Almohads in the Middle Ages, and later rulers varied considerably in their treatment of Jewish communities.

During World War II, Morocco was under the French protectorate and the Vichy regime introduced antisemitic laws. Moroccan Jews faced quotas, restrictions on education and professions, and attempts to remove Jews from European neighbourhoods back into mellahs. Sultan Mohammed V is remembered for publicly supporting his Jewish subjects and intervening on their behalf, although Vichy anti-Jewish legislation was nevertheless enacted in Morocco with the sultan’s formal seal. The reality is therefore more complicated than the popular myth that Morocco simply refused all Vichy measures.

After the creation of Israel in 1948, the situation changed dramatically. Anti-Jewish riots in Oujda and Jerada killed dozens of Jews, while uncertainty surrounding Moroccan independence, Zionism, economic opportunities abroad and fears about the Arab-Israeli conflict encouraged increasing numbers to leave.

Some left because of insecurity and antisemitism; some because they wanted to build a Jewish life in the new State of Israel; others sought education and economic opportunities in France or Canada. Political uncertainty surrounding Morocco’s independence in 1956 and subsequent restrictions on emigration to Israel also played a role. Later Arab-Israeli wars accelerated the departure of parts of the remaining community.

Around a quarter of a million Jews lived in Morocco around 1948. Within a few decades, the overwhelming majority had left. Marrakech’s once huge community dwindled to only a small number of residents.

Yet Moroccan Jewish culture did not disappear. It lives on in synagogues, cemeteries, mellahs, music, cuisine, religious traditions and family memories, in the large Moroccan Jewish diaspora, particularly in Israel, France and Canada - and apparently in restaurant restrooms.

23/08/2026

Jardin Majorelle is one of Marrakech’s most famous sights as it combines painting, architecture, botany and fashion history rather than just being a traditional Moroccan garden.

The garden was created by Jacques Majorelle (1886–1962), a French Orientalist painter who settled in Marrakech in 1919. He bought a palm grove on what was then the edge of the city in the early 1920s and gradually transformed it into his home, studio and experimental botanical garden.

Majorelle was passionate about plants and collected species from around the world. The roughly 9,000 m² garden eventually became filled with cacti, palms, bamboo, yuccas, bougainvillea, jasmine, banana trees and aquatic plants. He treated the garden almost like one of his paintings—using plants, architecture, water and colour as his materials.

In 1937 Majorelle developed the intense ultramarine shade now known as Bleu Majorelle or Majorelle Blue and began using it throughout the property. Against Marrakech’s red-earth colours and the green vegetation, the blue produces the striking contrast for which the garden is famous.

Majorelle opened the garden to the public in 1947.

After Majorelle died in 1962, the property gradually deteriorated. By the late 1970s, developers planned to replace it with a real-estate project.

Then Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé bought it in 1980 specifically to prevent its destruction. They restored the garden, expanded its plant collection and used the villa as their Marrakech residence, renaming it Villa Oasis.

This is why the place is so closely associated with YSL today, even though he did not create Jardin Majorelle—Jacques Majorelle did.

After Saint Laurent died in 2008, a memorial was created for him in the garden.

23/08/2026

Ouzoud Falls is a 110-meter, three-tiered waterfall located in Ait Taguella, Morocco, approximately 150 km northeast of Marrakesh. The site is surrounded by red cliffs, green valleys, and a resident population of wild Barbary macaques.