Le Jardin Secret

Step through the gate at 121 Rue Mouassine and the noise of the souks drops away. Le Jardin Secret occupies the site of a grand riad whose history goes back to the Saadian era, rebuilt in the nineteenth century by a powerful family of the court and later abandoned. After years of restoration, it opened to the public in 2016 as a garden and heritage site, and it has quickly become one of the most loved places in the old city. There are two gardens. The larger is an Islamic garden laid out in the classic four-part plan, with paths and channels of water dividing beds planted with olive, orange, fig and pomegranate trees, and a central pavilion where you can sit in the shade; it shows how a wealthy household of Marrakech arranged paradise inside its walls. The smaller exotic garden is a lush collection of plants from around the world, cacti and palms and flowering shrubs, an idea that echoes the nineteenth-century fashion for collecting. Throughout the site, displays explain the remarkable traditional water system, the khettaras and channels that brought water from the Atlas foothills under the plain to the city, and how it fed the fountains and pools here. The restored pavilions show off carved cedar, painted ceilings and zellige, and the tower, reached on a separate small ticket, gives a rare high view across the rooftops, minarets and satellite dishes of the Medina to the Atlas. There are two cafes, a free cloakroom and free wifi, and everything except the tower and one cafe is accessible to visitors with reduced mobility. Garden tickets cost a hundred dirhams at full price, with the tower forty dirhams more; children under twelve go free.

Opening hours change with the season: half past nine in the morning until half past five in November and December, six in October, half past six from January to March and half past seven from April to September, with last entry half an hour before closing; hours shift during Ramadan and on major holidays. Tickets are sold on site, with reductions for visitors up to twenty-four and for Moroccan citizens. Outside food and drink are not allowed, photography is for private use only, and drones and tripods are out. A visit takes about an hour, longer if you settle in the cafe with a book.

When to go: it is lovely at any time, but the late afternoon light in the Islamic garden is especially beautiful, and the tower is best at sunset in the shoulder seasons. Midday in high season can be busy with groups coming in from the souks. If you are visiting the souks, the Ben Youssef Madrasa or the Mouassine quarter, it is the perfect pause: the garden is in the heart of Mouassine, near the Mouassine Mosque and its fountain, and only a few minutes on foot from Jemaa el-Fna.

Why it matters: most of the great riad gardens of Marrakech are hidden in private homes and hotels. Le Jardin Secret lets anyone experience the idea that defines Moroccan domestic architecture, a blank wall to the street and a garden of water and shade within, and it explains the hydraulic engineering that made the city possible. It is also a good alternative or complement to the Jardin Majorelle: smaller, calmer, less expensive and right in the Medina.