Courtyard pool
Mirrored facades.
Photo2023 — CC BY 4.0 · Radosław Botev — CC BY 3.0 pl · Miguel Hermoso Cuesta — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Draceane — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Draceane — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yastay — CC BY-SA 4.0 · mwanasimba from La Réunion — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Sambasoccer27 — CC BY-SA 4.0
A historic Islamic college in the north of Marrakech's medina, named after the neighbouring Ben Youssef Mosque and commissioned by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib in 1564 and 1565 on the site of an older Marinid madrasa. At its height it was the largest Islamic college in the Maghreb, where students lived and studied. Its heart is a broad marble-paved courtyard with a long pool that mirrors the facades, ringed by walls clad in coloured zellij below and carved stucco above, topped by friezes of carved cedar. At its far end is the prayer hall with its decorated mihrab. On the upper floor are more than a hundred small student rooms whose windows look onto the courtyard and small inner patios, so you can imagine the lives of the students who lived here for centuries. The madrasa reopened in 2022 after a long restoration. A foreign visitor's ticket costs fifty dirhams according to the official website, ten for children under twelve, and it opens daily from nine to seven in the evening, until half past four during Ramadan. It is near the Marrakech Museum and the Almoravid Koubba.
Mirrored facades.
Three layers of ornament.
Centuries of study.
Place Ben Youssef, northern medina, Marrakech
Jemaa el-FnaaThe great square of Marrakech's old city and its beating heart for centuries, wh9 minutes walk
Dar Si Said MuseumA late nineteenth-century palace in the medina, built between 1894 and 1900 by S13 minutes walk
Koutoubia MosqueMarrakech's largest mosque and its best-known symbol, founded by the Almohad cal14 minutes walk
Bahia PalaceA nineteenth-century palace in the medina, begun by the grand vizier Si Musa in 15 minutes walk
Mellah and Lazama SynagogueThe historic quarter of Marrakech's Moroccan Jews, founded by decree of the Saad17 minutes walkNo, it is a historic monument open to visitors with no classes held; it was restored and reopened in 2022.