Indahnya Dunia: Magical Marrakech

9.9.2017 (Saturday) - 16.9.2017 (Saturday)

Residence Amina of Rue Ibn Oudari, Hivernage. Its a 2 bedroom apartment with full kitchen on 2nd floor with lift. We use this time share unit with 2016 allocation which we booked on 30th December 2016, 9 months in advance!.
Hivernagera is a wealthy residential district, is all about private houses and large chain hotels. Amina Residence is stuck within it. It used to be a private residence.

the kitchen

the bed is quite high

sitting area

another small room with 2 single beds.. pun tinggi

View from the apartment with High Atlas Mountain

view of nearby fruit orchard from the apartment

A trip to nearby CarreFour for a week supply of groceries, we eat in most days.

Love Moroccan Zamzani honey

if you cannot live without rice, better bring your own.. MAHAL giler!

fruits in season.... sedap dan manis. Bring your grocery bag ok.

Desert landscape on nearby building

beautiful landscape in Hivernage (an up market section of the city)

rows and rows of olive trees in Hivernage

love the peaches and grapes.... murah pulak tu

Since the temperature is not hot or cold, it is nice to stroll along the wide boulevards, typical of French streets or avenues.

Avenue Mohamad VI

Gare (Railway Station in French)

Magical Marrakech

This vibrant city is surrounded by palm-groves and olive gardens and bordered by the often snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas Mountain. With its colourful souks, time honoured masjids, ornate mausoleums, magnificent palaces and lively night time bustle on the Djemma el Fna, the 1,000 years old city is a sight to behold.

At times daunting, occasionally maddening, always exhilarating, Marrakech is all about getting lost, letting go and opening up to whatever experience or encounter comes your way. This should include diving into the madness of Jemaa el Fna at night and eating at the food stalls.

Marrakech is divided into the medina (the old town) and Guéliz (the Ville Nouvelle or new town).

Central Medina This is the geographical heart, spiritual soul and tourist hub of the medina. Everything in this area – demarcated at its southern end by the gardens of the Koutoubia and at its northern edge by Rue Dar el Bacha – revolves like a whirlpool around the iconic Jemaa el Fna with its ancient nightly spectacle. The souks stretch north of the square, and the magnificent Koutoubia Mosque at the neighbourhood’s western edge stands sentinel over the whole of Marrakech.

Southern Medina The grandest part of the medina, this southern neighbourhood has a colourful cultural history and is where you’ll find many of the city’s most chic riads. Made up predominantly of the original fortified kasbah, the royal palace and the Mellah (Jewish quarter) with its colourful markets, the area is punctuated by the great imperial palaces of Marrakech, some wonderful museums celebrating the city’s heritage, the legendary Mamounia hotel and the Agdal Gardens, where Marrakchis picnic in summer.

Northern Medina Far from the mania of the souks, the northern triangle of the medina is, for the most part, refreshingly undiscovered. Traditional, tranquil residential life is played out around the tomb of Marrakech’s most revered patron saint, Sidi Bel Abbes; vintage-lovers can spend hours exploring the chaotic rambling flea market of Souk el Khemis; south, closer to the souks, are galleries, fondouks, boutique shops, romantic riad restaurants, a scattering of tailor’s shops and hammams, and the atmospheric Madrassa Ben Youssef.

Guéliz Often undeservedly overlooked, super-relaxed Guéliz (the new town or Ville Nouvelle as it is known) has some of the best and most varied restaurants in town – from sushi and Thai to Lebanese, Italian and French. Its leafy side streets are dotted with charming shops where everything has a price tag and there is no need to haggle; fantastic modern art galleries showcasing Moroccan and international artists; outdoor cafés that are great for people-watching, and Yves Saint Laurent’s Jardin Majorelle, a breathtaking sanctuary in the heart of the city.

City walls and gates

The ramparts of Marrakech which stretch for 19 km around the medina, were built by the Almoravids in 1070's as protective fortifications.

The walls are made of distinct orange-red clay and chalk, giving the city its nickname as the 'red city', it stand up to 19 feet high and have 20 gates and 200 towers along them.

The Souks and the Medina

Marrakech has the largest traditional Berber market in Morocco. A honeycomb of intricately connected alleyways, this fundamental secction of the old city ia a micro-medina in itself, comprising a dizzying number of stalls and shops that range from itsy kiosks no bigger than an elf's wardrobe to scruffy store-fronts that morph into glittering Aladdins Caves once you are inside.

Historically the souks of Marrakech were divided into retail area for leather, carpets, metalwork and pottery. Haggling is a very important part of trade in the souks.

Souk Semmarine (one of the largest) sells everything from brightly coloured bejewelled sandals and slippers and leather pouffes to jewellery and kaftans.
Souk Ableuh specialize in lemons, chillies, capers, pickles, green red and black olives, mint and tea.
Souk Kchacha specializes in dried fruits and nuts, dates, figs, walnuts, cashews and apricots.

floss you teeth?

lip gloss every one?

weaving for a livelihood

getting lost in the medina

Masjid Koutoubia

Koutoubia Mosque is the largest mosque in the city, located in the southwest medina quarter of Marrakesh alongside the square. It was completed under the reign of the Almohad Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur (1184–1199), and has inspired other buildings such as the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Tower of Rabat. The mosque is made of red stone and brick and measures 80 metres (260 ft) long and 60 metres (200 ft) wide. The minaret was designed to prevent a person at the top of the tower from viewing activity within the king's harems. The Umayyad-style minaret is constructed from sandstone and stands 77 metres (253 ft) high. It was originally covered with Marrakshi pink plaster, but in the 1990s experts opted to remove the plaster to expose the original stone work. The spire atop the minaret is decorated with gilded copper balls that decrease in size towards the top, a style unique to Morocco.

The Koutoubia Gardens are situated behind the Koutoubia Mosque. They feature orange and palm trees, and are frequented by storks. The Mamounia Gardens, more than 100 years old and named after Prince Moulay Mamoun, have olive and orange trees as well as a variety of floral displays.

Djemma el Fna

The Jemaa el-Fnaa is one of the best-known squares in Africa and is the centre of city activity and trade. It has been described as a "world-famous square", "a metaphorical urban icon, a bridge between the past and the present, the place where (spectacularized) Moroccan tradition encounters modernity. It has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985. The name roughly means "the assembly of trespassers" or malefactors. Jemaa el-Fnaa was renovated along with much of the Marrakech city, whose walls were extended by Abu Yaqub Yusuf and particularly by Yaqub al-Mansur in 1147–1158. The surrounding mosque, palace, hospital, parade ground and gardens around the edges of the marketplace were also overhauled, and the Kasbah was fortified. Subsequently, with the fluctuating fortunes of the city, Jemaa el-Fnaa saw periods of decline and renewal. Historically this square was used for public decapitations by rulers who sought to maintain their power by frightening the public. The square attracted dwellers from the surrounding desert and mountains to trade here, and stalls were raised in the square from early in its history. The square attracted tradesmen, snake charmers ("wild, dark, frenzied men with long disheveled hair falling over their naked shoulders"), dancing boys of the Chleuh Atlas tribe, and musicians playing pipes, tambourines and African drums. Richard Hamilton said that Jemaa el-Fnaa once "reeked of Berber particularism, of backward-looking, ill-educated countrymen, rather than the reformist, pan-Arab internationalism and command economy that were the imagined future. Today the square attracts people from a diversity of social and ethnic backgrounds and tourists from all around the world. Snake charmers, acrobats, magicians, mystics, musicians, monkey trainers, herb sellers, story-tellers, dentists, pickpockets, and entertainers in medieval garb still populate the square.

waktu tengahari, masih kosong

Cooperative shop

how argan nuts are grounded to press the oil

sup kepala kambing

The BEST ever Harira soup

Edible cactus fruits

all kind of spices

Ras-El-Hanout

chais and teas

The old man 'the owner' could not speak English. The young man while learning English help with the sales

Saadian Mausoleum

The Saadian Tombs were built in the 16th century as a mausoleum to bury numerous Saadian rulers and entertainers. It was lost for many years until the French rediscovered it in 1917 using aerial photographs. The mausoleum comprises the corpses of about sixty members of the Saadi Dynasty that originated in the valley of the Draa River. Among the graves are those of Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur and his family; al-Mansur buried his mother in this dynastic necropolis in 1590 after enlarging the original square funeral structure. It is located next to the south wall of the Almohad mosque of the Kasba, in a cemetery that contains several graves of Mohammad's descendants. His own tomb, richly embellished with decorations, was modeled on the Nasrid mausoleum in Granada, Spain. The building is composed of three rooms; the best known has a roof supported by twelve columns and encloses the tomb of al-Mansur's son. The room exemplifies Islamic architecture with floral motifs, calligraphy, zellijand carrara marble, and the stele is in finely worked cedar wood and stucco. Outside the building are a garden and the graves of soldiers and servants.

Route to the tomb, along narrow alley

Jardins Majorelle

The Majorelle Garden, on Avenue Yacoub el Mansour, was at one time the home of the landscape painter Jacques Majorelle. Famed designer Yves Saint Laurent bought and restored the property, which features a steleerected in his memory, and the Museum of Islamic Art, which is housed in a dark blue building. The garden, open to the public since 1947, has a large collection of plants from five continents including cacti, palms and bamboo.

Bahia Palace

The Bahia Palace, set in extensive gardens, was built in the late 19th century by the Grand Vizier of Marrakesh, Si Ahmed ben Musa (Bou-Ahmed). Bou Ahmed resided here with his four wives, 24 concubines and many children. With a name meaning "brilliance", it was intended to be the greatest palace of its time, designed to capture the essence of Islamic and Moroccan architectural styles. Bou-Ahmed paid special attention to the privacy of the palace in its construction and employed architectural features such as multiple doors which prevented passers-by from seeing into the interior. The palace took seven years to build, with hundreds of craftsmen from Fes working on its wood, carved stuccoand zellij. The palace is set in a two-acre (8,000 m²) garden with rooms opening onto courtyards. The palace acquired a reputation as one of the finest in Morocco and was the envy of other wealthy citizens. Upon the death of Bou-Ahmed in 1900, the palace was raided by Sultan Abd al-Aziz.