Marrakesh Things (Fall 2025)

Cats!

One of the first things you notice in Marrakesh is that there are cats everywhere. I guess this is a thing in Muslim countries in general as cats are considered clean and pure.

People feed them one the streets and some strays just get adopted into homes and shops. I assume this is the reason you don’t see many rodents around town. If you are a cat person, you should visit.

Medina

The medina is the old thousand year old walled city in the heart of Marrakesh. Inside the walls are basically a labyrinth of alleyways and I don’t know how people navigated the medina before smartphones with GPS maps. You eventually get used to some landmarks to guide you but it is very easy to get lost in there.

The city is bound by high walls and there are several main gates which provide you with access into the medina.

Inside the city walls are alleys and souks (markets) that go on endlessly. I found that most of the shops are just kind of selling the same stuff but there must be enough business to support all of them as there are a lot of them.

The other amazing thing is that the people in the shops are like language savants. Marrakesh brings people from all over the world and everyone in the shops knows enough about like every language to make a transaction happen.

Inside the medina walls it does feel so much older than the modern part of the city standing just outside the city walls. Here they still use horses, donkeys and mules to transport the building materials for the medina and the supplies for the stores.

Jemaa el-Fnaa

This is the main square in the medina and the photos don’t really capture the crowds and chaos in the square. It is moderately busy during the day but at night it is generally packed with people. The restaurant stalls open up and night and there are vendors everywhere. The square was undergoing some construction and modernization in preparation for the upcoming (at the time) African Cup of Nations soccer tournament.

Snake Charmers

They are a real thing. I gave these guys an equivalent to a dollar for some photos. They are only in the squares during the day as the snakes are not active at night but the sounds of the pipes fill the air during the day and if gives the market an Indiana Jones movie vibe.

There are also guys with chained monkeys around which I find a bit sad (better to go to Gibraltar and see the barbary macaques running free). The square is also filled with ladies offering henna tattoos.

Scooters

Probably the only thing I found really bothersome about Marrakesh was the scooters mopeds in the medina. I don’t have anything against those vehicles but they are running constantly through the small alleys of the medina and it is impossible to get away from the exhaust because the tight alleys and walls just trap the pollution inside them. It is often so crowded that the scooters get stuck so there are just a line of scooters running their engines by you. Some of the engines are 2 stroke which makes it even worse.

Bees in Sweet Shops

You will often find bees swarming over the sweets at some shops. I was told that they are attracted to the honey and the shop owners like having the bees to show off how sweet their products are.