Enise Özüdoğru In 2019, during a summer school program, we reserved a two-day weekend for Marrakech in Morocco. After learning that Morocco is actually the name of a city in this country, the second interesting fact was that in Azerbaijan, Morocco is referred to as Marrakech. Marrakech is famous for its summer heat; in the early days of July, we were greeted with temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius.
Menara, Koutoubia Mosque, and El-Fna
One of the things that caught my attention in Morocco was that each city had its own unique color. Casablanca, also known as the White City, Chefchaouen as the Blue City, and Marrakech as the Red City. There were dozens of historical and natural beauties to see in Marrakech, but since our time was limited, it wasn’t possible to visit them all. We started our itinerary with the historical Menara Gardens, dating back to the 12th century.
Marrakech is famous for its gardens, and the oldest among them is Menara. This garden, which includes a centuries-old pavilion and a water reservoir, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1985. After the garden, we went to the Koutoubia Mosque, located right at the entrance of El-Fna (Foulness) Square. Like in other cities in Morocco, this mosque is locked outside of prayer times. They explain this as a measure to prevent the mosque from being used and dirtied outside of prayer times. The mosque, with its square minaret and arched structure inside, was a typical example of classic North African-Andalusian architecture.
Then we moved on to the famous El-Fna Square. During the daytime, activities in the square included exploring the bazaar, taking photos with cobra snakes and tethered monkeys, and getting henna designs on your hands. Additionally, there were colorful fruit juice stalls everywhere, filled with a variety of fruits. Especially during the hottest hours of the day, picking a fruit and sipping its juice was a great way to cool down and immerse yourself in the lively crowd of the square.
Besides these, the surrounding restaurants and cafes offered both traditional Moroccan delicacies like couscous and tajine, as well as French foods like croissants. A croissant and orange juice combination was a great alternative for breakfast. Since they were under French colonial rule for many years, they are quite good at things related to French culture. Croissants and speaking French are just a few of them. After strolling around a bit, we checked into our hotel just outside the old city and waited for the weather to cool down a bit. We had heard rumors that the nights in this city were much cooler, livelier, and more entertaining than the days.
An Enchanted Night in El-Fna Square
The real fun in El-Fna Square starts at night. It was quite surprising to see how much the square’s atmosphere changed in just a few hours. When we arrived, as the air cooled and the sun began to set, the snake charmers and monkey handlers had given way to storytellers, dancers in dazzling costumes (who we later learned were men), music bands, and various performers. At first, I felt like I was in the middle of an incredible chaos, and with every passing minute, I prepared myself for an interesting evening among hundreds, maybe thousands of people, with barely any room to move. The street food vendors in the square were all competing to make us their customers. The moment they realized we were Turkish, they started repeating words we didn’t understand at first but soon recognized after hearing them many times: “arkadaş, Hasan Şaş, yavaş yavaş.”
At these stalls, you could find everything from meat and offal of all kinds to snails and various types of fish. Among all this variety, I decided to be brave and try something I would probably never attempt again. Seeing the locals enjoy and eagerly eat the snails -though I knew it didn’t sound very appetizing- I decided to try them for the first and last time. The snails were served boiled, and the boiling water was flavored with various spices. Although I didn’t particularly like the texture of the snails, the spicy taste wasn’t too bad.
We continued to wander around in the chaos of the square. The most important thing to be aware of -which we learned later- is not to take photos of anyone, or at least not to get caught while doing it. If you get caught, the person will latch onto you and won’t let go until they get some money from you. Despite all the chaos, the square has a strange charm, an almost enchanting atmosphere that draws you in, even if you’re not a fan of crowds. This atmosphere lingers, gradually fading as the night progresses. We ended our colorful and lively evening stroll around midnight by taking a horse-drawn carriage, which we rented for a good price after some tough bargaining, and rode back to our hotel. The sound of horseshoes echoing through the quiet streets at that hour of the night left a nostalgic memory in our minds.
Before Leaving Marrakech
The next day, we decided to go shopping around the city, spending the day going from shop to shop. In this city, and generally in this country, there is a reality called ‘bargaining addiction.’ In a city where nothing is sold at a standard price, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re being ripped off every time you reach for something. Because when you ask for the price of an item and are told 800 dirhams -which at that time was around 500 lira, and now it’s around 2600 lira- you say no and prepare to leave the store, and suddenly the price drops to almost a quarter of the original. After some tough bargaining, I bought a few souvenirs and leather bags, but I couldn’t stop wondering for a long time whether that was the real price or if I had been tricked.
After shopping, we returned to the old city and took a stroll through the narrow streets. There are small museums in the alleys, and you can enter them for a price of about 10-15 dirhams. We visited a few museums and took photos in the red streets. Something happened here that had never happened to us before: while we were taking pictures, a man stepped into the frame and demanded money from us for taking his photo. We later learned that this is a very common practice throughout Morocco, especially in tourist cities.
We ended our second day in Marrakech after the afternoon prayer and set off for Casablanca by bus, leaving behind two days filled with joy and memories that would make us smile even years later…
