Bab Marrakech

Bab Marrakech is one of the historic gates of the Old Medina of Casablanca, standing at Place Bab Marrakech in Morocco's Casablanca-Settat region. It is part of the fortified wall that the Alaouite sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah ordered built around the town of Dar el Beida in the late 18th century, when the settlement was rebuilt as a port and trading town. The gate takes its name from the road leading inland towards Marrakech, which was the main route for trade between the Atlantic port and the interior. Like other medina gates in Morocco, it was both a defensive point and a customs and control point, where goods and travellers entering the walled town were checked. The gate has a simple, solid design of thick rammed-earth and stone walls with a single arched passage, set into crenellated ramparts that continue on either side. It lacks the elaborate decoration of the great imperial gates of Fez or Marrakech, which reflects Casablanca's former status as a small coastal town. During the French period the area around the gate became a transport hub, and the square outside the gate is now a busy meeting point with traffic, vendors and taxis. The walls and gate have been repaired and restored in recent decades as part of heritage works in the Old Medina. The gate remains in daily use, with pedestrians passing through into the lanes of the medina, and it can be visited at any time at no cost. It is a short walk from the Ould El Hamra minaret and La Sqala bastion, so most visitors see it as part of a circuit of the Old Medina. Evening light gives the ramparts a warm colour and is good for photography.