RAMPART TOWER
Marrakech ramparts stretching 19 km around the medina, with 202 rectangular towers, offering a horse-drawn carriage tour lasting at least 2 hours
The ramparts of Marrakech extend over 19 km around the medina. You can tour it by car, bicycle or horse-drawn carriage (not really recommended on foot in the sun) to get in touch with the city. Count at least 2 hours by horse-drawn carriage if you wish to visit the districts to which the gates give access. The walls are 8 to 10 metres high, depending on the location, and are up to 2 metres deep, with 202 rectangular towers. Architecture of clay adobe mixed with lime and gravel, it was the Almoravid Ali ben Youssef, son of the founder of the city, who had the first sections built in the 12th century to protect the city from outside attacks. He personally drew up the plans for this Herculean project with the help of master builders. Already at the time, more than one sceptic questioned the sustainability of these earthen constructions. Yet the walls are still standing! The state of preservation of these venerable walls, in the shadow of which it is not uncommon to see men musing and chatting over mint tea, is rather uneven: the wall that stretches from Bab el-Khémis to Bab ech-Charia, by the west of the city, is undoubtedly the one that has best withstood the onslaught of time (it is also the oldest). If Marrakech is nicknamed the Ochre City, it is undoubtedly because of this enclosure which, with the sun, takes a pink hue in the morning to become red in the afternoon and brown at sunset.
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