Marrakech Museum

About this place

The Marrakech Museum occupies Dar Menebhi, a palace in the northern medina built around the turn of the 20th century for Mehdi al-Menebhi, minister of war under Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz. The Omar Benjelloun Foundation restored it and opened it as a museum in 1997; the building, with its vast covered courtyard and huge brass chandelier, is as much the attraction as the displays. Menebhi later left Marrakech, and the palace passed to the family of Thami El Glaoui, pasha of the city under the French protectorate. State property after independence in 1956, it housed a girls' school in the 1960s, then lay neglected. One of many palaces of the era's wealthy elite, it covers about 2,000 square metres around a central courtyard, once an open garden planted with trees, now paved and roofed. Fountains stand in the courtyard, ringed by galleries clad in zellij and painted, carved cedar, under the chandelier of brass cut into geometric and arabesque patterns. Side rooms keep carved plaster and wooden ceilings, and you can walk through the old hammam's domed and vaulted chambers. Displays change: visitors in 2026 found ceramics, jewellery, weapons, costumes and textiles beside contemporary Moroccan painting; labels are mostly in French, with little English. The museum stands on Place Ben Youssef, about 60 metres from the Ben Youssef Madrasa and under 100 metres from the Almoravid Koubba, so the three fit into one morning. Jemaa el-Fnaa lies about 700 metres south as the crow flies, some 15 minutes' walk through the souks, and Dar El Bacha about 600 metres west. Allow about an hour.