Marrakesh Gardens and Palace

We visited two gardens  in Marrakesh, which are popular destinations there. They were each quite different from one another and gave us a variety of experiences. The first was Le Jardin Secret, the Secret Garden. Indeed, like many riads, its entrance to the medina alleyway was a small, nondescript metal door that led you into a large building with a big, central courtyard and tiled fountains.

The courtyard was planted with a variety of local and exotic species and all watered by the aquaduct system bringing water by gravity from the High Atlas mountains. The water conveyance was the most fascinating part of this garden, with gravity-fed water from miles away that runs in channels around the garden.

The second garden we visited, Le Jardin Majorelle, required advance reservations and it seemed like the majority of the entrance fee went towards blue paint and security. It had a very upscale, refined feeling and was indeed quite beautiful. The water features, colorful pots and reflective pools were certainly photogenic and we did enjoy our visit.

We also visited the Berber Museum on-site and really enjoyed the displays on traditional clothing, silver jewelry and musical instruments. I wish we were allowed to take photos because it was quite fascinating to learn about the Berbers. The jewelry was both a sign of being well off, and also a way to save your extra money until a time when you might need it. It was a bit like a savings account, to have jewelry that could be sold if times became hard. We recognized the musical instruments as the same as Berber musicians who had sung for us at lunch in the Ourika Valley the day before.

In addition to the gardens, we chose to visit the Palais Bahia which is one of two palaces that is popular to visit. The decorative ceilings and tiles were indeed impressive. While it was nice to walk around, it really didn't interest the boys very much. It would have been interesting if we had time to see if the other palace was more interesting.

As it was, Sam was getting over a virus giving him a fever so I was glad we managed to walk around the little that we did that day. He was a trooper!