The Most Beautiful Places in Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz are Koutoubia Mosque, Bahia Palace and Majorelle Garden. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Marrakesh lies on the Haouz plain beneath the snowy wall of the High Atlas, and its walls and buildings of red earth give it the name of the Red City. Founded by the Almoravids in the 11th century, it was the capital of empires that ruled from Iberia to the Sahara, and each dynasty, the Almoravids, the Almohads, the Saadians and the Alaouites, added mosques, palaces and gardens fed by water channels brought down from the mountains.
The Koutoubia Mosque is the city's emblem, its 12th-century Almohad minaret a model for later towers such as the Giralda in Seville. Bab Agnaou, from the same era, is a stone gate carved with bands of inscription and shell-like ornament in a city of earthen walls. The Saadian Tombs, built for Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, were walled up by a later ruler and only rediscovered in 1917; their Hall of Twelve Columns is covered with carved cedar and stucco.
The Ben Youssef Madrasa, rebuilt in the 16th century, centres on a courtyard of zellij tile, carved plaster and cedar around a long pool. The Bahia Palace, built in the late 19th century for a grand vizier, is a sequence of painted ceilings and garden courtyards. And the Majorelle Garden, created by the painter Jacques Majorelle, sets cacti and palms against walls of intense cobalt blue; Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé later restored it.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Koutoubia Mosque | Mosque | ✓ |
| 2 | Bahia Palace | Palace | ✓ |
| 3 | Majorelle Garden | Botanical garden | |
| 4 | Ben Youssef Madrasa | Museum | |
| 5 | Saadian Tombs | Mausoleum | |
| 6 | Bab Agnaou | City gate | ✓ |
01 Koutoubia Mosque
Morocco · 1.2 km from Marrakesh31.624° N 7.994° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by DEZALB from Pixabay The minaret of the Koutoubia is the landmark by which Marrakesh has measured itself for eight centuries. It rises about 77 m, its main square shaft almost 13 m wide, built of rubble masonry and sandstone that takes on a pink-gold tone in the evening.
Did you know? According to legend, the copper orbs on the finial are solid gold, one of them cast from a queen's jewellery as penance for breaking her Ramadan fast.
02 Bahia Palace
Morocco · 2.2 km from Marrakesh31.622° N 7.982° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
Val Traveler · CC BY-SA 4.0 The Bahia Palace is not one building but a sequence of them, grown over four decades the way a Marrakesh house grows: a garden here, a courtyard there, corridors bending to join them. That lack of a master plan is exactly what makes walking through it so rewarding.
Did you know? Ba Ahmed expanded the palace piece by piece as neighbouring plots came up for sale, reshaping the street plan of the district north of the Mellah.
03 Majorelle Garden
Morocco · 1.1 km from Marrakesh31.642° N 8.003° W
Viault · CC BY-SA 4.0 Behind a plain wall in the Gueliz district of Marrakesh lies one of the most famous colours in the world. The painter Jacques Majorelle, who had settled in the city, began laying out a garden here in 1923 and spent close to forty years on it.
Did you know? Besides painting, Majorelle ran a handicrafts workshop in Marrakesh and designed posters promoting travel to Morocco.
04 Ben Youssef Madrasa
Morocco · 1.5 km from Marrakesh31.632° N 7.986° W
Lundeux · CC BY-SA 2.5 The Ben Youssef Madrasa is the great theological college of old Marrakesh, and its courtyard is one of the most complete expressions of Moroccan ornament to be seen anywhere.
Did you know? The madrasa takes its name from the neighbouring Ben Youssef Mosque, founded by the Almoravid sultan Ali ibn Yusuf, who reigned from 1106 to 1142.
05 Saadian Tombs
Morocco · 2.1 km from Marrakesh31.617° N 7.989° W
C messier · CC BY-SA 4.0 Behind a plain wall in the old royal quarter of Marrakesh lies one of the most lavish burial places in the Islamic west.
Did you know? The star-patterned cedar cupola over al-Mansur's tomb is a smaller echo of the famous ceiling of the Hall of Ambassadors in Granada's Alhambra.
06 Bab Agnaou
Morocco · 1.9 km from Marrakesh31.618° N 7.991° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
John Doyle doyler79 · CC BY 3.0 Bab Agnaou is the ceremonial gate of the old royal kasbah of Marrakesh, a stone arch set into the southern part of the medina just inside the city walls. It was built under the Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, and completed around 1188–1190, as the formal entrance to the palace quarter he created.
Did you know? An interior staircase once climbed through the gatehouse to a terrace on its roof.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz?
- On our list, Koutoubia Mosque ranks first, followed by Bahia Palace and Majorelle Garden.
- How tall is the Koutoubia minaret?
- The minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque is about 77 metres tall, including its spire. Completed in the late 12th century under the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur, it influenced the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat.
- Why is Marrakesh called the Red City?
- Marrakesh is called the Red City because its walls and many of its buildings are made of red clay and earth from the surrounding plain.
- What is Majorelle blue?
- Majorelle blue is the intense cobalt blue that the French painter Jacques Majorelle used for the walls of his garden and studio in Marrakesh from the 1920s and 1930s. The garden was later bought and restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz?
- In our collection, the places in Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz are most often botanical gardens (1), mosques (1), mausoleums (1) and palaces (1).
- How many places are on this list in Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz?
- The list covers 6 places.