El-Badi Palace

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Marrakech is the third largest, beautiful city in the heart of Morocco, with oriental traditions, very crowded, noisy, attracting tourists with memories of former luxury. Many of the sights of Marrakech are UNESCO protected sites

The palace became the symbol of the victory of the ruler Ahmad al Mansour over the army of Portugal in the battle known as the "Battle of Three Kings."

In the medina (old part of the city) behind the huge wall is the palace of El -Badie (El Badi Palace), created in 1578-1603 gg ., is an incomparable sample of the Maghreb architecture, a "miracle of miracles", a model of architectural equilibrium, formerly sung by poets . He was fabulously beautiful, no wonder his name translated as "peerless" . Raised it for one of the Saadid dynasty, Sultan Ahmad al Mansour, who loved luxury madly, for which he was nicknamed "Golden" . The palace became a symbol of the victory of the ruler Ahmad al Mansur over the army of Portugal in the battle known as the "Battle of the Three Kings" .

El Badi Palace - Marrakech

The palace was decorated with gold, turquoise, crystal, rare kinds of Italian marble, Irish granite, Indian onyx, precious wood . All this was imported into Marrakech by the Sultan for money Portugal, received after its defeat, from the Indus Italy, Central Africa, Spain, France . The best masters of Andalusia and Catalonia worked day and night to create this oriental masterpiece . According to one of the versions, the prototype of El-Badi Palace is the Alhambra Palace in Granada . Legend says that marble for the palace was bought for sugar, as for a small coin . Surprisingly, a central heating system was created in the palace, despite the fact that it was the 16th century . The builders were generously paid: once a year everyone was given gold by the live weight of the builder himself .

In the residence of Sultan El-Badi, de were 360 rooms, huge yard, decorated with flower gardens, a huge swimming pool (90 x 20 m) and surrounded by gardens, with orange trees, sumptuous feasts and performed after the reception.

But, alas, the history of the palace was not so happily ever after. In 1683 Sultan Moulay Ismail of the Alawite dynasty, having moved the capital to Maknes, decided to build a new palace for himself and ordered to dismantle the "Incomparable". For almost a decade, El-Badi was plundered, destroyed and destroyed. All his treasures and decoration materials were taken to the Alavitov Palace

And today the palace of El-Badi is the ruins of the once luxurious and richest palace, the shadow of the former magnificence, an empty shell. About its magnificence resemble only impressive walls. The courtyard was overgrown with grass, and orange trees grew up in the place of a huge pool, where storks nested in.

Walking through the palace, you can see the windows of the dungeons where the servants lived, see the remains of the baths, the ancient palace arches. From the observation tower of the tower, there are views of the inner territory of El-Badi and old houses of Medina around the palace. In the distance you can see the main mosque of the city of Kutubia. As a guide, it helps tourists not to get lost in any part of the city.

The El-Badi Palace

El-Badi's Palace can be visited every day from 8:30 to 17:45 (break from 11:45 to 14:45 ).

The price of admission ticket for visiting this man-made miracle is not high - 10 MAD and 20 MAD is worth visiting the palace and the Minbar mosque

Photographing in the palace is prohibited

How to get to the palace of El-Badi

The palace is located in the center of Medina (the old part of the city).

Nowadays various festivals, national and religious holidays are held here. Restoration work is very slow on the territory of El-Badi. But even by what remains of the basement, arches, walls and pools, one can imagine all the grandeur of this historic site and its impressive size.

El-Badi Palace

Inside the El-Badi Palace

Garden, El-Badi Palace

Gallery, El-Badi Palace

Pond, El-Badi Palace