مدرسة ابن يوسف

Founded in the fourteenth century and rebuilt by the Saadians in the 1560s, Ben Youssef housed hundreds of students in around a hundred and thirty cells set over two floors. It closed as a school in 1960, opened as a monument, then shut in 2018 for a restoration that took four years.

What came back is cleaner than most visitors remember: cedar carved in Kufic above the courtyard, zellige to shoulder height, stucco worked finely enough that you can still see the tool marks. The cells upstairs are small and dark, and they are the point of the place.

Ninety minutes with a guide who reads the inscriptions. Go at nine, while the courtyard pool is still holding the light.