The Berkeley Guides:
Berkeley Guide to Europe:
Morocco:
Marrakech
With a population of nearly two million, Marrakech is the second-largest city in the country and, with its walls of tabia (red mud), desert-bound caravans, and oceans of sand, is easily one of the most interesting. Marrakech's roller-coaster history has dragged it from 12th-century imperial splendor under Sultan Yacoub el Mansour to economic stagnation in the 19th century to its current status as a burgeoning industrial metropolis, attracting everyone from rural Berber farmers to world superpowers during the 1994 GATT negotiations. Still, many people come to Marrakech not for the city itself, but for what's around it. The High Atlas mountains, south of Marrakech and just out of sight, have kept the harsh Sahara at bay for centuries, yet Marrakech remains the gateway to North Africa's torpid, sun-baked interior. It may not be Lawrence of Arabia come to life, but this crowded desert town seems to validate even the most romantic images of North Africa.
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