After a good night sleep our sick person is feeling a lot better and everyone is looking forward to a day of sightseeing in the medina. That is as long as we can also remember how to get back, we are not sure about that. But first it is time to breakfast on the roof of the riad with some interesting views of the medina from above.
The food is good and filling, the coffee is exceptional, and we feel ready to face the chaos of the medina while searching for our points of interest.
Today we avoid the most central area at least in the beginning and try to use the sidestreets to get used to them. While it is a maze really and we sometimes enter a few dead ends we get quite adept at using our GPS, which has no map just the points of interest locations, to lead us to the desired locations.
Still we are quite happy when we make it to our first point of interest, the Marrakesh Museum. It is housed in a building that looks old, but isn’t really, called Dar Mnebhi Palace. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century and even though it is newer than we expected it is breathtaking. The Moorish style is a highlight for us and we really like the Main Courtyard where we spend the majority of time gawking and taking photos.
The detailed mosaics are quite special and the wooden doors have delicate carvings, they are really worthwhile to see.
The exhibits are more so-so but we really like the camel saddle, it really looks regal.
There are other exhibits, from more modern paintings to daggers and coffee pots from different periods of Moroccon history. Overall it was worthwhile even though it was smaller than we expected and we move on to the nearby Almoravid Koubba.
While the Marrakesh Museum was housed in an newer building the Almoravid Koubba is one of the oldest buildings in Marrakesh. In fact it is the only surviving example of Almoravid architecture and it was built in the early 12th century.
It is assumed that it belonged to the nearby Ben Youssef Mosque and it was a pavilion used for ritual ablutions. It is really a small archaeological area but we like that we can explore unhindered and enjoy the beautiful decorations.
The cupola especially is beautiful with some of the earliest muqarnas, ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture, decorations in Morocco. We explore a bit enjoying the more quieter site before continuing on to the Medersa Ben Youssef a major highlight of historic Marrakesh.
