The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Morocco
5 places · updated 6 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Morocco are Koutoubia Mosque, Volubilis and Bab Bou Jeloud. The list covers 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Last updated 6 October 2026.
Morocco's World Heritage sites sit where Roman Africa, Berber dynasties and Andalusian craftsmanship overlapped. The Almohads and their successors built in rammed earth, carved stone and glazed tile, and walled medinas such as Marrakesh and Fez kept that work in daily use rather than behind museum glass.
The Koutoubia Mosque's 12th-century minaret, built under the Almohads, became the model for the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. Volubilis, a Roman town at the foot of the Zerhoun massif, keeps its floor mosaics in place and a triumphal arch raised for Caracalla. Bab Bou Jeloud, finished in 1913, is the gateway into old Fez, faced in blue tiles on the outside and green on the inside. The Bahia Palace in Marrakesh was built in the late 19th century for a grand vizier, room after room of painted cedar ceilings and zellij. Bab Agnaou, another Almohad work, frames its horseshoe arch with bands of carved sandstone and Kufic script.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Koutoubia Mosque | Mosque | ✓ |
| 2 | Volubilis | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 3 | Bab Bou Jeloud | City gate | ✓ |
| 4 | Bahia Palace | Palace | ✓ |
| 5 | 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? The minaret has no stairs: a broad internal ramp winds past six stacked rooms, wide enough for the muezzin to ride a horse to the top.
02 Volubilis
Morocco · 19.1 km from Meknes34.071° N 5.554° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Yolanda from Pixabay Volubilis sits on a gentle ridge below the Zerhoun massif, looking over a plain of olive groves north of Meknes, and the olive is the key to the whole place. Rome's westernmost towns rarely looked this prosperous: the city's wealth came from oil, and the remains of dozens of presses are scattered among the houses, one of them rebuilt with a full-size replica of a Roman press.
Did you know? A coin of AD 168 or 169 deliberately set into the masonry of the Tingis Gate dates its construction almost to the year.
03 Bab Bou Jeloud
Morocco · 1.8 km from Fez34.062° N 4.984° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author. I would much appreciate if you send me an email tagooty@yahoo.com or write on my talk page , for my information. Please contact me before commercial use. Please do not upload an edited image here without consulting me. I would like to make corrections only at my own source to ensure that the changes improve the image and are preserved. Otherwise you may upload an edited image with a new name. Please use one of the templates derivative or extract . · CC BY-SA 4.0 Bab Bou Jeloud is younger than it looks. The triple-arched gate that frames the western entrance to Fes el-Bali was built by the French colonial administration: the head of municipal services laid out plans for a new opening in the walls in December 1912, and the gate was completed in 1913.
Did you know? The gate guards the western entrance to Fes el-Bali, the medieval medina inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
04 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? The whole palace was built on a single level, possibly because Ba Ahmed was so stout that climbing stairs was difficult for him.
05 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? Over the centuries the gate has also gone by Bab al-Qasr, the Palace Gate, and Bab al-Kuhl, usually rendered as the Gate of Kohl.
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 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Morocco?
- On our list, Koutoubia Mosque ranks first, followed by Volubilis and Bab Bou Jeloud.
- Why is the Koutoubia minaret so famous?
- Completed under the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur in the late 12th century, it set the pattern of a square tower with differently decorated faces. Its sister towers are the Giralda in Seville and the unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat.
- Who lived in Volubilis?
- Volubilis was a Mauretanian town that became one of the main Roman cities of the province of Mauretania Tingitana. After Roman rule ended it stayed inhabited, and Idris I, founder of Morocco's first Islamic dynasty, established himself there in the late 8th century.
- How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites are on this list in Morocco?
- The list covers 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.