Almoravid Marrakesh Grows from Camp to Capital

1070

What had begun as a military encampment in the Haouz plain beneath the Atlas Mountains was becoming a genuine city. Yusuf ibn Tashfin laid out Marrakesh's first permanent structures - mosques, markets, fortified walls of red pisé clay - establishing the architectural palette that would define the city for a millennium. Its position commanded both the mountain passes to the Sahara and the fertile agricultural plains of Morocco's interior.