What's the must-see thing in Marrakech?

Jemaa el-Fnaa is the answer. Not the Majorelle Garden, not Bahia Palace. The open square at the southern edge of the medina has been the gravitational center of Marrakech since the Almoravid dynasty laid it out in the 11th century, and it still operates on the same principle. People gather, sell things, perform, eat. By 5pm on any given evening, smoke from grilled merguez and lamb kefta rises thick enough to sting your eyes. Orange juice vendors line the north side. Each stall charges 4 to 5 dirhams per glass. Gnawa musicians set up near the center. Their metal castanets, called qraqeb, clatter loud enough to carry across the full expanse. Over 100 food stalls serve harira, grilled brochettes, and snail soup to crowds that spill past the Café de France until around midnight. UNESCO inscribed the square on the Intangible Heritage list in 2008. Walk in from Rue Bab Agnaou or the Koutoubia Mosque side. No ticket, no reservation.

If you see one built structure inside the medina walls, make it Bahia Palace. Grand Vizier Si Moussa began the complex in 1866, and his son Ba Ahmed expanded it into 8,000 square metres of zellige tilework, carved cedar ceilings, and marble courtyards. The palette is green, white, and cobalt on plaster so finely worked it looks like lace from 3 metres away. Ticket price is 70 dirhams. Go before 10am. By noon, tour groups fill the narrow riad corridors and the courtyard photographs become crowd photographs. The Saadian Tombs, a 12-minute walk south through Bab Agnaou, are the natural second stop. Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur built the mausoleum complex in the late 1590s. It was sealed behind a wall for centuries and rediscovered by French surveyors in 1917. The carved Carrara marble and cedarwood inside the Hall of Twelve Columns tends to stop people mid-step. Same 70-dirham ticket, same advice about morning visits.

The Majorelle Garden, 3 kilometres northwest of Jemaa el-Fnaa in the Guéliz district, is the most-visited paid attraction in Morocco. Jacques Majorelle, a French painter, started planting the property in 1923. Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé bought it in 1980 and restored it. The cobalt blue walls photograph well, and the Berber Museum inside is worth 30 minutes. That said, the 150-dirham combined ticket and the crowds along the narrow garden paths can make it feel like queueing at a theme park by midday. If you have 3 hours and have already seen the square and Bahia Palace, the garden earns its slot. If you have only one day, skip it. The medina itself, the 10-kilometre circuit of pink pisé walls encircling the old city, gives you more of Marrakech per hour than any single ticketed site.

The souks branch north from Jemaa el-Fnaa in a loose grid of covered alleys, each named for its original trade. Souk Semmarine, the main artery, runs about 400 metres selling leather bags, ceramics, and brass lanterns. Souk des Teinturiers still has working dye vats where skeins of wool hang overhead in saffron yellow and indigo. Haggling is expected. A reasonable opening offer sits around 40% of the first quoted price. Petit taxis, the beige Dacia Logans, run metered fares within the city, typically 15 to 30 dirhams per ride. Bus 19 connects Marrakech Menara Airport to the square for 30 dirhams in about 20 minutes. Riad guesthouses inside the medina walls tend to run 400 to 900 dirhams per night for a double with rooftop breakfast included. Summer temperatures currently reach 40°C at midday from June through August. Start at Bahia Palace when it opens at 9am, reach the Saadian Tombs by 10:30, then find a shaded rooftop café for mint tea and msemen flatbread until the heat breaks around 5pm. The main medina routes stay lit and busy past 10pm.