Walk through the gate of the El Badi Palace and you enter a space that feels more like an ancient stage set than a building. The walls are tall, ochre and open to the sky. A huge courtyard stretches out in front of you, with sunken orange gardens and long rectangular pools reflecting the light. High above, on the top of the wall, storks stand beside their enormous nests and clatter their beaks. The palace has no roof, no furniture and almost no decoration, but it has something rarer: scale. Standing in the middle of the courtyard, you realise how large and ambitious the palace must once have been.
A palace built from a battle
The story of the El Badi starts on a battlefield. In August 1578 the Moroccan army met a Portuguese force near Ksar el-Kebir, in the north of the country, in an encounter that became known as the Battle of the Three Kings, because three rulers died: the Portuguese King Sebastian and two rival Moroccan claimants. The Saadian ruler Ahmad al-Mansur, who became sultan on the day of the battle, took advantage of his victory. The Portuguese nobles who had been captured were ransomed for large sums, and this wealth gave the new sultan the means to build.
He began work on the palace almost immediately. It was meant to celebrate the victory and to be a place where he could receive ambassadors and hold great ceremonies. He gave it the name El Badi, “the incomparable” or “the unequalled”, and it is clear that he wanted it to be exactly that. Work continued for roughly fifteen years, from 1578 to about 1593.
Accounts of the time describe a palace filled with rare materials. Marble from Italy was said to have been brought in, onyx, gold leaf, mother-of-pearl and cedar were used in abundance, and artisans from across the country came to work on it. Gold arrived from the Sahara after the Saadians extended their influence south, and sugar, one of the dynasty’s main sources of wealth, paid for much of the rest. It is difficult to separate legend from fact in such accounts, but the picture that emerges is consistent: this was the most splendid royal residence Morocco had seen for a long time.
From palace to ruin
The palace was used for state occasions for only a few decades. After al-Mansur’s death in 1603 the dynasty slid into civil war and decline, and in the 17th century power passed to the Alaouites, who still rule Morocco today. The second Alaouite sultan, Moulay Ismail, decided to build a new capital at Meknes. Rather than pay for new materials, he ordered that the El Badi be stripped. Marble, onyx, carved wood, tiles and decorative elements were removed from the palace over a period of years in the late 17th century and sent north. What was left was a shell of mud-brick and rammed earth, which is what you see today.
That story gives the visit a particular character. You are not looking at a restoration, and you will not see rooms that are furnished or decorated as they once were. You are looking at the bones of a building, and the imagination has to do the rest. Many visitors find that this makes it more moving, not less.
What you will see
The central courtyard. The main space is a great rectangle, around 135 metres long and 110 metres wide, according to commonly given measurements. In the centre is a large pool, and at the corners and along the sides are sunken gardens planted with orange trees, which in the 16th century would have been laid out as a formal garden. The sound of water, even when the pools are only partly filled, adds to the calm.
The pavilions. At the ends of the courtyard stood pavilions, the principal reception halls where the sultan met guests. Today only their outlines and some wall fragments remain, but you can still make out the layout of the great halls and imagine the ceremonies that took place in them.
The walls and the storks. The high perimeter walls can be climbed in places, and from the top you get one of the best views in Marrakech: the rooftops of the medina, the minaret of the Koutoubia in the distance, and on a clear day the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas. Storks nest on the walls, mostly from late winter into spring, and you will see them at close range. Their nests have become an emblem of the palace.
The underground passages. Below the courtyard are corridors and chambers, once used for storage, servants’ quarters and, according to tradition, dungeons. They are cool and dark, and a pleasant contrast to the sun above.
The Koutoubia minbar. One chamber near the entrance is devoted to a masterpiece of medieval woodwork: the minbar, or pulpit, which was made in Córdoba in the 12th century and used for centuries at the Koutoubia Mosque. It is decorated with intricate marquetry in inlaid wood and bone, in geometric patterns that are astonishingly fine. In the purpose-built gallery, you can walk around it and look at the details from different angles, which would not be possible in a mosque.
Practical visiting tips
The El Badi is a large site, with little shade. A few tips will make the visit more comfortable.
- Choose your time. Early morning is best in summer, before the heat builds, and late afternoon gives a warm light on the walls. In winter the middle of the day is pleasant.
- Bring a hat and water. There is little shade in the courtyard, and the walls reflect the heat.
- Wear flat, sturdy shoes. The ground is uneven, and some of the stairs and passages are steep.
- Allow an hour or more. If you want to climb the walls, visit the underground rooms and spend time with the minbar, give yourself longer.
- Check events. The palace is sometimes used for festivals and exhibitions, and some areas can be closed at those times. Opening hours and prices also change, so check locally.
- Take a guide, or read first. Because so little remains, the history makes the visit much richer. A guide, or a quick read like this one, helps you imagine the missing parts.
Nearby sights and a walking route
The El Badi lies in the Kasbah district at the south end of the medina, near the Saadian Tombs, built by the same sultan, and the Bahia Palace, a very different kind of building that dates from the 19th century. Together they make a good half-day, and the contrast between them is instructive: a ruin from the 16th century, a burial ground from the same period, and an intact residence from the 19th. After that, a walk through the lanes north to Jemaa el-Fnaa is a natural end to the day, perhaps with a mint tea on a terrace overlooking the square.
Seeing the Saadian world by bike
The Saadian dynasty did not only build in Marrakech. Their power came from the south, and their first capital was Taroudant, a walled town on the Souss plain. If you would like to follow their trail by bike, our six-day gravel journey, The Long Way to Taroudant, rides from Marrakech across the Western High Atlas to that very town and returns over the Tizi n’Test pass. It is a hard route, but it gives a real sense of the distances the Saadians travelled and the landscapes they governed. For a gentler day, ask us about a ride around the city in the early morning, when the lanes of the medina are quiet; our article on cycling in Marrakech explains how.
Reading the layout: a palace for ceremony
It helps to remember what the palace was for. The El Badi was less a home than a stage for royal ceremony. The sultan received foreign envoys here, among them diplomats from European courts, and the setting was designed to impress them from the moment they entered. Guests walked through successive gateways and courtyards, each larger and more richly decorated than the last, until they reached the central garden court with its long pools, where the water doubled the walls and the sky. Reflection was part of the design: in a dry climate, a sheet of still water was the clearest sign of wealth and control.
The sunken gardens add another layer. Planted well below the level of the walkways, the orange trees were meant to be looked down upon from raised terraces, so that the whole court read as a single composition. Even in ruin, you can still stand on a terrace and understand the idea. If you have time, walk once around the perimeter of the courtyard and then stand in the middle, and notice how the proportions of the space are calm and balanced, like a large room without a ceiling.
What the ruins teach us
It is tempting to look at the El Badi as simply a ruin, but it is also a lesson about power and memory. A sultan built the most splendid palace he could to proclaim his triumph, and a few decades later another sultan took it apart to build his own. The materials were reused, the buildings forgotten, and the site became a quiet field of crumbling walls. Yet something endured. The scale of the courtyard, the water in the pools, the birds on the walls: these are what remain, and they are enough. They tell us that the ambition of a ruler can outlast the building that it was meant to adorn.
Final thoughts
Take your time at the El Badi. Climb up to the wall for the view, listen to the storks, step down into the cool passages, and spend a few minutes in front of the minbar. It is one of the most atmospheric places in Marrakech, and it is a monument that works best when you let the emptiness speak.