Inside Marrakech · Medina
Medersa Ben Youssef
The largest Quranic school in Morocco, reopened in 2022 after four years of restoration.
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.
Your comfort and privacy
- Private — your party only
- Prayer space on site
- Children welcome
- Arabic-speaking guide
Hours shorten to roughly nine to four during Ramadan.
Pairs well with
Experiences our concierges put alongside this one — for the hour they run, the direction they lie in, or simply because they suit each other.
Le Jardin Secret
A Saadian riad garden rebuilt to its original irrigation, with a tower over the medina roofs. Arabic-speaking guide From 220 USD the private day, up to 6 guests
The Mouassine quarter on foot
Fondouks, a douiria with painted ceilings, and the dyers' souk, in three unhurried hours. Arabic-speaking guide From 330 USD the private day, up to 6 guests