Ben Youssef Madrasa

If you see only one interior in Marrakech, many people would choose this one. The Ben Youssef Madrasa was built by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib in 1564 and 1565, beside the older Ben Youssef Mosque at the northern end of the souks, and for four centuries it was a residential college where students from across the region learned the Koran, law and sciences. At its peak it was one of the largest madrasas in North Africa. The plan is simple and powerful: you enter through a long, dim corridor and emerge into a great rectangular courtyard open to the sky, with a long marble pool in the center that mirrors the walls around it. Those walls are the reason you came. The lower levels are clad in zellige mosaic tile in intricate geometric patterns; above them run bands of carved stucco as fine as lace, with calligraphy, palmettes and honeycomb muqarnas; and above that, carved cedar lintels and screens are darkened to a deep honey color by age. At the far end, the prayer hall is the most richly decorated space of all. Around and above the courtyard, staircases lead to the student cells, around a hundred and thirty of them arranged around smaller light wells, tiny bare rooms where you can stand at a window looking down into the courtyard and imagine the life of a student here. The madrasa closed as a school in the twentieth century and has since been restored and reopened as a monument by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, with a recent restoration that cleaned the stucco and woodwork. It opens daily from nine in the morning to seven in the evening, and adult tickets cost fifty dirhams.

Practicalities: the official site lists a fifty-dirham adult ticket, ten dirhams for children under twelve, and opening from nine to seven every day. Its online ticketing has been under maintenance, so pay at the entrance, where there can be a short queue. The madrasa is in the north of the Medina, about fifteen to twenty minutes on foot through the souks from Jemaa el-Fna, signposted along the way. Go early: by late morning the courtyard fills with groups and photographers waiting for a clear shot of the pool. The upstairs cells involve narrow, steep stairs. Allow forty-five minutes to an hour.

Photography and etiquette: the madrasa is a monument rather than a working religious school, and photography is allowed and expected. For the classic symmetrical shot of the pool and the prayer-hall arch, stand at the entrance end of the courtyard; for the overhead view, find a cell window on the upper floor. Dress modestly out of respect, as you would anywhere in the old city. The Tiqets walking tour linked from our Bahia Palace page includes entry here with a guide.

Around it: the madrasa anchors a cluster of sights in the northern Medina. The Marrakech Museum in the nineteenth-century Dar Menebhi palace is next door, and the Almoravid Koubba, a small domed pavilion that is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city, is just beyond. The Maison de la Photographie, a museum of historic photographs of Morocco with a rooftop cafe, is a short walk away, and the Musee des Confluences in the Dar el Bacha palace is in neighboring Mouassine. Combine them with the souks and Le Jardin Secret for a full morning in the north of the old city.