A few days of travel allow you to just know a place and the people who live there, yet strong Marrakech gets to the heart.
The people living there have deep dark eyes and a pleasant smile.
Immersed in the city, one is swept away from the main square in Medina Jemaa el Fna and Souk (in arabo market) Markets organized in guilds. They reveal the soul of Morocco. It becomes difficult not to get lost in the streets of the Medina and find that the time is stopped, at least, compared to contemporary living.
I Souk (other market) There is a mix of classes and social conditions. Traders, farmers, homeless, children families, an elderly flow in the streets like blood in veins.
The souks as well as being market, look like general meetings of the city, where people meet in every hour, to drink mint tea. The Mint tea (in arabo mint tea, Shay bi-l-na'na') It is an infusion of green tea leaves and mint, accompanied by a lot of sugar, that is served foam to vaporize the fragrance.
Given the hospitality drink and refuse it is considered a rude gesture.
The tea made its first appearance in Morocco during the reign of Mulay Isma'il. It was a gift from Queen Anne of Great Britain as a sign of gratitude to the sultan who had released a group of British prisoners.
In Riad was the first offer and at every intersection and follow every new acquaintance with a person, the sign of meeting, friendship and welcome was the gift of a tea.
Staying in a Riad is equivalent to dwell for a few days in the ancient urban traditional houses in Morocco. They are a cultural miscellany as the initial inspiration dates back to Roman domus then the strongest influence of housing arabo-andaluse, They have created multi-storey structures, with fully enclosed rooms to the outside of the city and overlook the internal gardens and courtyards with fountains.
At the center of the Medina, you can visit Bahia Palace one of the most important architectural works of Marrakech, inside with mosaics, wood carvings and Arabic gardens capable of thermo regolarore the inner courtyards.
The Islamic Arab garden can as a hortus conclusus that defines the internal order and keeps to its external disorder and chaos.
The Museo Dar Si Said (Moroccan Art Museum) carpeted, tools and machines for the craft work, with a parade of colors and expressions.
From the minaret of Mosque in Marrakech, the voice of the muezzin spreads like a dirge in the pink city, a deep call to prayer, l’adhān (in Arabic: Ears) for the five daily Muslim prayers.
A little beyond the Medina, you can take a dip in blu Majorelle who has bewitched Yves Saint Laurent. The color between the ultramarine and cobalt, He was created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle, lover of botany who gave birth to an incredible tropical garden, not far from the walls of the old city of Marrakech, then purchased by Yves Saint Laurent.
The French artist Jacques Majorelle orientalist began planting and tending the space in 1923. In the 30s, a cubist villa designed by French architect Paul Sinoir, It was built between plants. The vivid cobalt blue and yellow stand out and complete plant life, which includes bougainvillea, orange nasturtiums, pink geraniums, bamboo groves, cactus, date palms and pools covered with lilies.
In the 80s it was acquired by designer Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé. The garden is open to the public to enjoy this urban oasis.
Of Marrakech YSL he said: "This city has taught me what are the colors, and I hugged her light, his brazen contrasts and its intense inventions ". These sensations there you breathe.
