Marvelous Meandering in Marrakesh
This winter I travelled to Morocco and was stunned by the country, its people, its architecture and city planning, and of course, its food. I had the privilege of watching the World Cup semifinals of Morocco vs. France in the heart of the capital, Rabat, at a rooftop bar. Amongst the shouts of “sy”, redolence of chicken tagine, and the perfume of the Middle Eastern clear sky, I decided to write an short essay on my experience in the gorgeous city of Marrakesh.
Introduction:
Marrakesh is the “Land of God” by the old Berber text and was often considered Morocco’s historical capital. I have never seen a city like this, a place that feels atavistic but in an authentic way. People aren’t putting on a façade of it being ancient times but genuinely live this way. I want to illuminate four topics I found particularly distinct (neighborhood components, design / architecture, transportation, market forces / professional disciplines) that dictate the walkable urbanity of Marrakesh. Authentic to this assignment, we lived this walkability on a 7 hour city walking tour (Figure 1) with a fantastic tour guide who took us deep into the Meddina, surfaced the daily life of multiple professionals (tanners, teachers, pottery makers, blacksmiths, bakers, and more), and explained the diverse dynamic between all the inhabitants of Marrakesh: Berbers (native Moroccan people), Arabs, and the Jews.
What makes a neighborhood?
A neighborhood in Marrakesh is called a “Derb”, thus explaining many of the addresses that being with “Derb etc”. A Derb, as described by our tour guide, acts as a mini self-sufficient city state, including both living arrangements, commerce, and leisure activity centers. A Derb, at a minimum, must have a bathhouse for Hammam, a place of prayer, its own market, its own bakery (bread is critical) (Figure 2), and living space for its citizens. Our tour guide described these things as “the glue that holds a neighborhood together” and told us of the strong loyalty local communities have towards buying and selling within their Derb. There are three types of living spaces (large to small) for different tiers of citizens: (1) a Riad, a large house structure that although seems “humble from the outside”, is an oasis on the inside (more on the design of Riad’s later), (2) a “mini Riad” (there was a word for this, but I forgot what it was) which is smaller than a Riad with less rooms and (3) apartments for more common / less wealthy citizens. Today, the ownership control of Riads largely sits in the hands of wealthy Europeans as the city exodus / sprawl by the Moroccan upper class to the more bucolic life of the country left these beautiful properties unattended for. Our tour guide said that wealthy Italians and Spaniards saw an opportunity for profit (best understood in Real Estate Investment language as: high NOI potential, low purchase price) and swept in once the Moroccan wealthy vacated.
Design and Architecture
The architecture in Marrakesh is a fusion between strong Islamic forces and the desert survival instincts of the Berber natives. Stucco paint is found on all of the outside walls to absorb the heat, making the city alleys cooler and more walkable. Doors force one to “stoop” lower (Figure 3). After hitting my heads 6+ times, I asked our tour guide “why are these doors were so small, was everyone back then short?” He laughed and responded that in Islam, you are meant to bow and pray before entering a room and thus the doors were designed to remind citizens to take to prayer (it became a running joke that as we approached doors, I was told, “don’t forget to pray”). Doors are engraved with a trident / serpent figure (Figure 4) as a way of protecting the household from evil (the serpent) and the ceilings / tiling are incredibly ornate, hand carved and painted by the locals in the Derbs (Figure 5).
Riads are the homes of the wealthy. They are comprised of at least 5 rooms with a center garden / pool that the household gathers around (Figure 6). The rationale for 5 rooms is that the patriarch of the family used to take 4 wives, so there was one room for each of them and one room for the male head of the family. From the outside, Riads appear quite austere (Figure 7). This is again driven by Islamic values: you are not meant to flaunt your wealth. High walls protect the Riad from heat and shield its ostentatiousness from prying eyes. It also makes the city’s surface structure look more consistent. When you walk around the Derbs you would have no clue whether you just walked past a mansion or a regular citizen’s house most of the time. It also pushes citizens towards the city’s beautiful mosques (Figure 8) and retail shops in the city center. People don’t focus on the optical beauty of the residential areas.
Market Forces
As mentioned in the introduction, the life in Marrakesh is this esoteric combination of old and new. People using cell phones while taking a break from stripping down a cow hide and fixing motorbikes at the blacksmith center. Maintaining the “old way” is important to the Moroccan people and so much so that the government subsidizes artisans to do craftmanship (makes shoes, make pottery, make leather bags, etc.). Many of these citizens housing is paid for in special hostels. The majority of the goods that are made are not meant to be exported abroad but rather are meant to be distributed to the people of the Derb. With such an emphasis on craftsmanship, there is undoubtedly a large retail / market presence (Figure 9) which generates an incredible amount of foot traffic. There are leather districts, brass districts, pottery districts, carpet districts, and more (Figure 10). Unlike typical places that I have been that “create” this market bazaar feel, these sections are not segmented between tourists and locals. Our group was stunned how much of this was not for tourism but rather the Derbs ensuring the GDP wheel spun round and round.
Transportation
Marrakesh, like other developing nations, has little to none large scale public transport infrastructure (no rails or subways or buses). The roads are quite narrow such that cars can’t enter certain alleys and when they do, they squish pedestrians to the sides of the sidewalk. There are four main modes of transport (in order of most use): foot, motor-cycles, motorcycle taxis, and vans / cars. This makes the city incredibly walkable (although beware of being hit by a motorcycle) (Figure 11). The mayor of Bogota discussed in his article about “bikes” being part of the solution” to urban walkability. Although bikes were seemingly absent in Marrakesh (I suspect driven by the windy streets + long commutes if residing outside the city, our tour guide motorcades ~25+ minutes), I see parallels to the ease of going outside in Bogota and Marrakesh. Transportation is the gel that makes the retail and neighborhoods “work” as the streets, although chaotic, are open for all sorts to walk on.
Conclusion
Marrakesh was a gorgeous city with a shockingly happy people. We sat in on a school session with a kindergarten class, a tanner on his 5th hide of the day, and a Hammam employee responsible for heating the bathhouse BY HAND (literally sitting next to the furnace throwing charcoal in all day) (Figure 12). There is an economy built around artisan labor and a lifestyle that has not yet been too tampered by western modernism — — its citizens wear down the handmade shoe leather of their own neighborhood economy by walking about. (Figure 13)
