10 Marrakech Souvenis you can´t miss

Babouches 

Babouches are Moroccanslippers, handmade from local leather, although increasingly the babouches found in the souks are made of a synthetic plastic that only looks like leather. In their most basic form they are pointy-toed and come in a variety of colours – canary yellow being the most common – but are otherwise plain. However, lots of boutiques and shops customize their babouches with silk trim, or even carving the leather with exquisite designs.

Argan oil

Argan oil is an almost mystical substance to which all kinds of properties are attributed . Part of its mystique can be credited to the rarity of argan trees, which only grow in southwestern Morocco. The oil is sold all over the souks but much of it is low grade. For quality oil, it’s best to buy from a reputable dealer.

Carpets

Marrakech is famed for its carpets, made by the tribes of the south. Each tribe has its own patterns. Beware the salesmen’s patter. Some carpets are very old and made of genuine cactus silk but these are rare. Most sold today, though beautiful, are quite modern and made from non-natural fibres. Buy a carpet if you like it, and not because you have been told that it’s a good investment.

Pottery

 Each region of Morocco produces its own distinctive pottery. The local style is plain terracotta finished with colourful glazes. Ceramics from the Akkal factory would not look out of place in a cutting edge design shop. Or visit the big pottery souk outside Bab Ghemat which is to the southeast of the medina.

  

Lanterns

There are two types of lanterns: those that hang from the ceiling and those that sit on the floor. The former (known as fanous) are typically fashioned from metal and come in elaborate shapes with intricate decoration. The latter are made of skin and goats’ hair and are usually colourful. Look for them in the northern part of the souk or down at the Place des Ferblantiers.

Leather bags 

Marrakech is known for its leather. It is made by treating animal hides by hand in the tanneries  in the east of the medina which are then dyed. Unsurprisingly, the shops of the souk are filled with leather goods from purses to handbags to book bindings. Do plenty of window shopping before settling on an item. 

Candles  

Candles are used to great effect in local restaurants. They are sold in all shapes, colours and sizes in the souk, and some of the designs can be highly inventive. Some of the best are made by a small company called Amira (www. amirabougies.com) and you can buy them in various boutiques.

Jewellery 

The local Berber jewellery is silver, chunky and heavy. However, a number of artisans in Marrakech, both local and foreign, produce more modern designs. Look out for Joanna Bristow’s brilliant designs in select hotel boutiques such as La Maison Arabe .

Fashion 

Marrakech may have inspired countless foreign couturiers from Yves Saint-Laurent to Tom Ford. However, it’s only recently that the city has begun to develop a fashion of its own. There are some young Moroccan designers producing beautiful clothing, like the high profile brothers behind the boutique Beldi , whose collections made from local fabric are tailored to Western sensibilities.

Marra-Kitsch  

A recent trend amongst local designers involves taking the iconography of Marrakech and giving it a Pop-ish twist. Florence Tarrane of Kulchi does shoulder bags that feature the khamsa (five-fingered hand), the good-luck symbol of the Arab world. Hassan Hajjaj makes fanous from sheets of tin printed with advertising logos, sold at his riad (see www.riadyima.com).

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JEMAA EL FNA for food Connaisseurs

As day gives way to night, this famous square is decked out in inviting, make-shift tables, where you can sample grilled meats and traditional dishes.

"I couldn't believe the flawless organisation of the night restaurants in this fantastic square! Long tables are laid out in a flash, while the coals glow red and kebabs flash before your eyes accompanied by bread and tomato sauce. The sellers appeal to passers-by, inviting them to sit at their tables. Under the lights and the fumes, young and old find themselves sitting at the same benches partaking of timeless, unchanging dishes that include couscous with seven vegetables,

tagines, hot steaming snails, all types of kebabs and Moroccan salads to name but a few. It's a celebration of eastern flavours in a good-natured atmosphere all at tiny price. You could come back every night to Aicha's no. 27 stand or to Hassan's sandwiches at no. 78, before sinking back into the energetic colours of Jemaa el Fna."

Jack Rogers, chef at a London restaurant.

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The Fantasia of Morocco

We arrived in Tissa in the early morning. Festivities and competition was not due to start until around 9.30 am, so we spent time chatting with locals and checking out the magnificent horses as they were prepared for the big event - The Fantasia.

In the hours before the competition began, the contestants and their mounts were extremely busy. Every last detail of equipment was checked, saddles made ready and the rifles, that play such a dramatic part in the event, were loaded and discharged.

There was also a fair bit of horse-trading, with good horses selling for between 4000 and 9000 Euro.

The Tissa Horse Festival re-lives Morocco's rich and often war-like history. It's still extremely daunting to see a line of warriors dressed in white charging straight towards you on their spirited Arab stallions. Stopping within centimetres of the wooden fence at the finish, they fire muzzle loaded rifles in a deafening volley. On occasion a horse can't be restrained and breaks through.

While the Tissa Horse Festival is held in honour of a local patron saint, a fifteenth century Holy man, called Sidi Muhammad ben Lahcen, the displays of skilled horsemanship are primarily about speed, team work, discipline and manoeuvrability.

Teams are judged by officials who watch from in front and on both sides. The criteria involved includes the neatness of the formation as it charges, the ability to charge right up to the fence at the end of the field and the discharging of the rifles in unison.  It was an extraordinary event that thrilled the more than four thousand spectators.

There is no doubting the skills involved in this "sport" - and no way of avoiding the fact that is also dangerous. There were several minor spills, cuts and bruises during the morning events, but, thankfully, only one serious incident in which a horse fell and crushed the rider beneath him. What was so impressive was the speed in which first aid was available. It was no more than five seconds after the accident before the ambulance officer sprinted assist. The injured man was transported to hospital and his condition was not serious.

By the middle of the day, the competition was over and the teams paraded in front of the official tents. It was good news for the local team, who took out the first prize, closely followed by the horsemen of Fez.

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Marrakech Museum of Art

In the calendar of its temporary exhibitions, the Museum of Art de Vivre in Marrakech opens its new cultural season with an exhibition devoted to the art of the garden in Morocco. Being a great lover of gardens, cacti in the first place, with great pleasure I write on this topic, more and more present in Morocco. The man, from his sedentary worked and modified landscapes. And it has created others. On the thread of time, farming techniques and diversification of cultures and the creation of new plant varieties with biotechnology and breeding techniques have changed and enriched prondamente flora around the world.

The Gardens

If the creation of a garden depends on the sun and weather, owes much to the cultural terrain on which it develops and historical era to which they belong. It can be said that a garden is a synthesis of physicality, of natural pictures, geography, history and culture. The gardens are a reflection of the civilization that saw them born, is not important in this example the names of territories and cultures that created them: Islamic gardens, Andalusian, Japanese, English, French, Italian. So fragile, the gardens have already known by ancient civilizations in different times, are sometimes able to cross time and witness the genes that have created these masterpieces. Dell'Agdal Gardens, Majorelle, Versailles, Doctors, and many others are excellent illustrations the size of their creators. Morocco, the crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, is characterized by diversity dali landscape and its different climates.

The Sahara

Ref in dense forests, dunes in the Sahara, the Middle Atlas cedraie, visitors discover the Moroccan different situations, both natural and cultivated by man. Due to these differences, primarily the climate, the gardener is always plenty of opportunity to give free rein to his imagination by creating gardens to dream, to relate and love. It reaches the point of view two types of gardens coexist mixandosi in a unique fusion, creating a new form of movement. The photographers participating in the exhibition, Nourddine Tilsaghani Hassan Nadim, Abdellah Mahmoud and Abderrazzak Benchaâmane, have traveled all over the realm Moroccan photographing both the public and private gardens. Their goal is to claim the garden as an ecological and natural heritage, enhancing an art of living in harmony with the nature of Morocco. The exhibition will be visible until 30 November 2011.

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The Last Storytellers Of Marrakech

"Every winter I make this trip to Marrakech to escape the bitter cold of the mountains, desert or the sea, but also because I feel the need to come to terms with what happened that night here in Jemaa, on which hung the feeling of something wrong, even when the two strangers had made ​​their first appearance, which would prove to be the last. In fact, they are my torment. " 

In the famous Jemaa el Fna, the main square overlooking the medina of Marrakech, attentive listeners and passers-by gather around for years to Hassan, a storyteller who loves to recall the story of a couple of foreigners, gone one night a few years earlier . Everyone in the Jemaa el Fna had noticed the young American, bright and beautiful, accompanied by that Indian enigmatic, everyone had been hypnotized, and now seem to see them again appear and disappear in the alleys of the medina, in flashes of images evoked and memories.

Guilty Of Murder

Because everyone has a piece to add to the story that Hassan is trying to rebuild in an attempt to unravel the mystery of quell'inspiegabile disappeared. This' that presses to exonerate his brother Mustafa Hassan, who against all logic has been found guilty of the murder of two young men. Hassan is convinced of his innocence and stubbornly tries thread: why stirs memories and eyewitness accounts of that night. But more evidence gathers, the more the reality seems to be fading, because none of the pieces match with the other, indeed, to every detail that adds further blurs the truth, the facts become more elusive. And those two strangers assume an aura fabulous and enigmatic as their fate, while the reader is led to wonder if Hassan will ever succeed in his intent or whether, with increasing anxiety, he is not part of the mystery that haunts him. 

Desert Of Love

The book carries Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya gracefully from the labyrinth of the medina of Marrakech to the stretches of "desert of love", where the wind and the sand seem to swallow anything in foreign wanderers and vagabonds. "The story-tellers of Marrakesh" overturns the rules of mystery to offer a mosaic of fragments of love that defies anyone to reflect on the nature of imagination and memory, and the links with the truth and beauty. Without intellectualism, with the passage of the grand narrative and a persuasive tone of emotion, in a story that demands to be read with growing urgency to each page. The writer was born in Jamshedpur, India, and lives near New York. Of the first novel was "The Club Gabriel." With "The storyteller of Marrakech" from the beginning of a trilogy set in the Islamic world .

"The story-tellers of Marrakesh" - Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya - Mondadori - 19.50 Euro

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