Attractions & Natural Wonders · Morocco

Morocco: Nine Attractions and Natural Wonders

A medieval market square that never stops, an entire town painted blue, one of the world's oldest working tanneries, and dunes rolling into the true Sahara

By Worldlore Editorial · 19 September 2026

A huge open square packed with market stalls and crowds at dusk, mosque minaret behind — Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech, a UNESCO-recognised living market square that fills every evening with food stalls and performers. (Jakub Hałun / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0)

Where the Sahara meets the Mediterranean

Morocco, in the far northwest corner of Africa, has been a crossroads of Arab, Berber (Amazigh), African, and European influence for centuries — the closest African country to Europe, separated from Spain by just 14 kilometres at the Strait of Gibraltar. It has about 37 million people, medieval walled cities still fully alive rather than preserved as museums, the High Atlas mountains, and the edge of the true Sahara in its south.

The nine below run from Marrakech through the imperial cities to the desert and coast. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; summer is very hot inland and in the desert, and the Atlas mountains hold snow into spring.

1. Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech

A vast square of lit food stalls and crowds at dusk, a minaret glowing behind — Jemaa el-Fnaa's food stalls filling the square at dusk, a mosque minaret lit up behind. (Michal Osmenda / Wikimedia Commons)

Jemaa el-Fnaa, the great square at the heart of Marrakech's medina, has drawn storytellers, snake charmers, musicians, and food vendors for centuries and is recognised by UNESCO as a "masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage" — it transforms by night into one of the largest open-air food markets in the world. The surrounding souks sell everything from spices to leather to lanterns, a maze easy to get pleasantly lost in.

Go by day for the square itself and the souks, and return after dark for the food stalls and full spectacle.

2. The Majorelle Garden

A vivid cobalt-blue villa surrounded by cacti and palm trees in a garden — The cobalt-blue villa and garden created by painter Jacques Majorelle, later owned by Yves Saint Laurent. (Viault / Wikimedia Commons)

Just outside Marrakech's old walls, the Majorelle Garden was created over four decades from 1923 by French painter Jacques Majorelle, who developed the vivid cobalt "Majorelle Blue" used throughout the villa and grounds. Later owned and restored by fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent (whose ashes were scattered here), it holds cacti, bamboo, and a small Berber museum, and remains one of Marrakech's most popular sights.

Tickets sell in timed slots and often sell out; booking ahead is worthwhile.

3. Chefchaouen

Narrow streets and stairways with every building painted in shades of blue — The blue-washed streets of Chefchaouen, in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco. (Mark Fischer / Wikimedia Commons)

Chefchaouen, a small mountain town founded in 1471, has painted its old medina in every shade of blue since at least the 1930s — the reason debated (a Jewish refugee tradition, a mosquito repellent, simple aesthetics) but the effect striking and, in the age of photography, hugely popular. Its cooler mountain air and relaxed pace are a contrast to Morocco's bigger cities.

It sits in the Rif Mountains, about a five-hour drive from Fes or Tangier.

4. Fes and the tanneries

Rows of round stone dye vats filled with colourful dyes, workers treating hides — The Chouara Tannery in Fes, where hides have been dyed by hand in stone vats since the medieval period. (Bikerhiker75 / Wikimedia Commons)

Fes, Morocco's oldest imperial capital, has the largest car-free urban area in the world in its medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of over 9,000 narrow lanes. Its Chouara Tannery, one of the oldest in the world, still processes hides by hand in a checkerboard of stone dye vats using methods largely unchanged for centuries — best viewed from the terraces of surrounding leather shops (a sprig of mint helps with the smell).

The Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859, is recognised as one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world.

5. The Sahara at Merzouga

Tall golden sand dunes at sunset with camel tracks in the foreground — The dunes of Erg Chebbi near Merzouga, the most accessible edge of the true Sahara. (Johannes K Becker / Wikimedia Commons)

Merzouga, at the end of a long desert road from Fes, sits beside Erg Chebbi, a sea of dunes rising to 150 metres. Camel treks head out at sunset to desert camps for the night, watching sunrise turn the sand from grey to gold to deep orange. The nearby Khamlia villages preserve Gnawa music traditions brought north by trans-Saharan trade and slavery routes.

The overland journey there — over the Atlas via the Ziz Gorge and Todra Gorge — is as memorable as the dunes themselves.

6. Aït Benhaddou

A fortified earthen village of towers and walls rising on a hillside — Aït Benhaddou, a fortified ksar (kasbah village) on the old caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech. (cliff williams / Wikimedia Commons)

Aït Benhaddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the old trans-Saharan caravan route, is Morocco's best-preserved example of earthen kasbah architecture — tightly clustered mud-brick towers and walls on a hillside above a river, still home to a handful of families though most residents moved to a newer village across the water. Its cinematic looks have made it a favourite film location, from Lawrence of Arabia to Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

It is on the main road between Marrakech and the Sahara, an easy stop en route.

7. The Todra Gorge

A narrow, towering red rock canyon with a thin road running through the bottom — The Todra Gorge, where a river has cut a narrow canyon up to 300 metres deep through the High Atlas. (Jon Lean / Wikimedia Commons)

The Todra Gorge, on the southern flank of the High Atlas, narrows to a canyon just 10 metres wide in places between sheer red rock walls up to 300 metres high — a popular rock-climbing destination and a striking short walk or drive, with Berber villages and palm groves along the river at its base.

It is a common stop on the overland route between the Dadès Valley and Merzouga.

8. Essaouira

Old cannons on a stone sea wall overlooking a busy fishing harbour — The Skala du Port sea wall and cannon at Essaouira, a windswept Atlantic port town. (CastlesCatalog / Wikimedia Commons)

Essaouira, on the Atlantic coast, is a breezy, blue-and-white 18th-century walled port city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known for its fishing harbour, ramparts (used as a filming location for Game of Thrones), a laid-back arts scene, and reliable wind that makes it one of Morocco's best windsurfing and kitesurfing spots. Its medina is calmer and less overwhelming than Marrakech's.

It is about three hours from Marrakech, a popular add-on for a coastal break.

9. The Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca

A vast mosque with an enormous minaret standing on the edge of the ocean — The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, with the tallest minaret in the world and a hall built partly over the Atlantic. (Tinuzzo / Wikimedia Commons)

Casablanca, Morocco's largest city and economic capital, is more business hub than tourist destination, but the Hassan II Mosque is reason enough for a stop — completed in 1993, it has the tallest minaret in the world (210 metres) and a prayer hall built partly over the Atlantic, with a retractable roof and capacity for over 100,000 worshippers. It is one of the few mosques in Morocco open to non-Muslim visitors, on guided tours outside prayer times.

Morocco rewards a loop rather than a single base: a classic route links Marrakech, the Atlas and Sahara, and the imperial cities of Fes and Meknes over 10 days to two weeks, with the coast (Essaouira, or Tangier and Chefchaouen in the north) as an add-on.

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