Moroccan Architecture Tleta (Three)

My third post in the “Tour of Moroccan Architecture” series is about the Bahia Palace from the 19th century. Bahia means beautiful in Arabic and the name couldn’t be more fitting in my opinion! The palace covers nearly 8 acres and consists of a number of courtyards, gardens, lounges, waiting rooms, lounges, and bedrooms ornately detailed with carved and painted wood, colourful tiles, geometric patterns carved into stucco, and marble floors.

The Bahia Palace is located along the northern edge of Marrakech’s medina in the Jewish quarter. The above pictures are taken from inside an inner courtyard filled with beautiful green palms, as well as cypress, orange, jasmine and banana trees. The wood detailing of the doors, ceilings, and archways was incredible. But even more impressive was the intricately cared geometric patterns in the stucco walls. Below is a close up to show just how amazing it was!

All of the rooms open to the public are empty, but you hardly even notice. The beautiful decorations covering the floors, walls, and ceilings, are so elaborate that you could look at them for days and never get bored. I really loved exploring each room, and was especially amazing by the detail of the doors leading to and from each room.

The Bahia palace contains a mix of Moorish and Berber architecture and design. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Quran forbids the inclusion of real world depictions in Islamic art. However if you look closely at some of the pictures below, you can see small flowers, leaves, and other things. These real world depictions are evidence of the Berber influences in the palace.

I can’t finish this post without showing some pictures of the beautiful ceilings. I dream to have a house with ceilings like these!

I think out of all the historical buildings we saw in Marrakech, the Bahia palace was my favourite!