OZU /MOROCCO /MARRAKECH /GUIDE
Medina, Kasbah and Guéliz
5 h route3 stopsBest: The medina in the morning. Guéliz in the afternoonUpdated July 2026
Marrakech is three cities pressed together and very different. The medina: an 11th-century walled maze with no cars and everything in red earth. The Kasbah: the quarter of power, to the south, with the palaces and the tombs. And Guéliz: the straight, modern city the French raised in 1913, twenty minutes and a century away.
Where to stay depends on what you want: a riad in the medina to live it, a hotel in Guéliz for comfort. This route walks all three so you know which is yours.
The route, stop by stop
3 STOPS- 01
The medina and its walls
The old city sits entirely within 19 kilometres of rammed red earth wall, raised in the 12th century and still standing with its monumental gates: Bab Agnaou, Bab Doukala, Bab el-Khemis. That colour is what gives the city its nickname.
Inside, cars don’t enter (only scooters, carts and donkeys) and the streets have no logic: they’re organised by guild and by quarter, each with its mosque, its oven, its hammam and its fountain.
It’s a medieval city genuinely functioning, not a stage set.
- 02
The Kasbah
The quarter of power, in the south of the medina, where the sultans lived: the Bahia Palace, the ruins of El Badi and the Saadian Tombs, all five minutes from each other and separated from the rest by their own wall. Come in through Bab Agnaou, the 12th-century Almohad gate and the finest in the city, with its carved stone arches. It’s the most monumental and the calmest part of the medina, without the souk’s noise.
- 03
Guéliz and the new town
The French founded Guéliz in 1913, deliberately, outside the walls: they wanted a modern city without touching the medina. The result is straight avenues, Art Deco buildings and a completely different life twenty minutes away on foot.
This is where the Majorelle Garden, the art galleries, the bistros and the licensed places are.
It’s where the Moroccan middle class lives and where you breathe after the souk. It isn’t touristy, and that’s why it shows another face of the country.
Frequently asked
Where to stay in Marrakech: medina or Guéliz?
In the medina, in a riad, if you want to live the old city: you’ll be inside everything, though the taxi won’t reach the door. In Guéliz if you prefer comfort, conventional hotels, licensed restaurants and streets cars can drive down.
Why is Marrakech called the red city?
For the colour of its 19 kilometres of wall and its buildings, made of local rammed red earth since the 12th century. A local rule keeps that tone in the medina’s buildings.
Do cars go into the Marrakech medina?
No, or barely: the streets are too narrow and only scooters, carts and donkeys pass. If you stay in a riad, the taxi drops you at the nearest gate in the wall and the last stretch is on foot with your case.