Bab Mansour

Bab Mansour is the monumental gateway at Place el-Hedim in Meknès, Morocco, and one of the best-known landmarks of the former imperial city. Construction began under the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, who ruled from 1672 to 1727 and made Meknès his capital, and it was completed in 1732 under his son Moulay Abdallah. According to tradition, the gate is named after its architect, a Christian convert named Mansour Laalej, with the name meaning victorious renegade. It was designed as the ceremonial entrance to the imperial city and as a statement of the sultan's power. The gate has a large central horseshoe arch flanked by two massive towers and a second pair of smaller blind arches. It is clad in zellige tilework in green, the colour associated with Islam, and in carved stucco and calligraphy, and its columns were taken from the Roman ruins at nearby Volubilis. It stands on the edge of Place el-Hedim, the large public square opposite the Meknès medina, and the area in front is lively in the evening. The gate was damaged by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and later repaired, and it has been restored several times since, with more recent work by the Moroccan authorities as part of the preservation of the UNESCO-listed historic city of Meknès. The structure is largely exterior and visited from the square, while the interior is mostly used for exhibitions or closed, depending on the time. Entry is free. The best photographs are from Place el-Hedim in late afternoon, when the light warms the tilework, and the area is a good starting point for exploring the medina and the nearby Dar Jamai Museum.