Bab Agnaou

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. Its façade is carved from a greyish-blue sandstone, probably quarried near Gueliz, and it was meant less for defence than for display.

The decoration is an essay in Almohad restraint and precision. The horseshoe arch is framed by a series of concentric bands, some with radiating lines, others with interlacing lobed arches, and in the spandrels on either side there are carved shells among floral motifs. Around the whole runs a band of Quranic inscription from Surah al-Hijr, written in foliated Kufic letters whose tall stems end in small leaves. The origin of the name is uncertain; it is Berber, and interpretations range from a word for "mute" to the Gnawa, to a phrase for a sheep without horns.

What survives is only part of the original gateway. It once stood between two bastion towers and led into a vaulted vestibule with a bent entrance, both now gone, and the great arch itself was later partly filled in with a smaller brick one. The stone also suffers from salts in the mortar and from traffic pollution. Even so, it remains a masterpiece of Almohad stone carving, and through it lie the Kasbah Mosque and, beside it, the Saadian Tombs.

Getting there

Bab Agnaou is in the Kasbah district in the south of the Marrakesh medina, next to the Kasbah Mosque and the Saadian Tombs. Marrakesh Menara Airport (RAK) is about 4.5 km away. The gate itself stands in the open and can be seen at any time.