Market sights in Morocco
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A
Attarine Souks
There's a cluster of souks just off the Talaa that are worth exploring. Coming from Bab Bou Jeloud, the first is Souk Triba, meaning 'square in shape', with a small orange tree and some cosmetic and electronic shops. Walk through to Souk Tallis where sacks for wool and wheat were sold. Now there's a carpet stall and several shops selling cloth for jellabas (cloak with a hood) - though many of the shops are now closed.
Continue through to the next souk, L'Hayek (;09:00-12:30 & 15:00-17:00 Sat-Thu), which refers to the white cloth used for women's clothes. These days there are jellabas, gandoras (men's embroidered jacket and pants) and jabadors (garment worn under a jellaba…
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B
Flea Market
This is an interesting place to wander, it descends towards the river. If you want to keep exploring, turning north along Rue des Consuls, you'll be surrounded by colourful carpets, leatherworks, babouches (leather slippers) and copper crafts. It's one of the more interesting areas of the medina for travellers with many original diplomatic residencies still intact.
After the carpet souq, the street ends in an open area lined with craft shops which was the setting for the slave auctions in the days of the Sallee Rovers. From here you can make your way up the hill to the kasbah.
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C
Henna Souk
One of the oldest market places this souk, off Talaa Kebira, has graceful plane trees shading the stalls selling ceramics and traditional cosmetics, including henna. The mohtassib (price-controller), now defunct, had his office here and you can still see his large scales. On one side is the restored Maristane Sidi Frej, a former psychiatric hospital built by the Merinids in the 13th century. Leo Africanus worked here as a young man. It's now a small kissaria (covered market).
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D
Achebine Souk
This street formerly housed traditional medicine shops; there's one left, with jars of snakeskins, birds in cages, live chameleons, gazelle horns and skins on the walls. Nowadays it's a bird market - locals buy chickens and turkeys, doves and pigeons. There are lots of food stands here and the air is thick with smoke from kefta (spiced meatballs of lamb or beef) kebabs being grilled.
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E
High-Tech Souq
Wander in the north of the souqs past the bridle-makers and lute-carvers and through a stone archway, and you'll find the most bizarre bazaar of all. This souq is covered with palm fronds and lined with shops that are literally holes in the mud-brick walls, packed floor to ceiling with flat-screen TVs. Donkey carts lug in computers still in their boxes; it's multimedia gone medieval.
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F
Rahba Qedima
Harry and the Hogwarts crowd probably shop here for school supplies. The Rahba Qedima is ringed with apothecaries who sell exotic and mysterious spell supplies to locals and traditional cosmetics to tourists, who eagerly dip a wet finger into clay pots of aker and smear it on their lips as rouge - apparently unaware that this stuff is made of ground-up insects.
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G
L'marqtane
Follow a dark passage into this enclosed square north of Sagha and imagine being sold: this used to be an old slave market. Now it's a second-hand clothing market in the mornings (hugely crowded at weekends). A good search can turn up superb antique velvet caftans rich with silver embroidery, or a silk takshita (garment worn over a caftan) for weddings.
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Walled Medina
This is a rich mixture of spices, carpets, crafts, cheap shoes and bootlegged DVDs. It was built on an orderly grid in the 17th century and lacks a little of the more colourful character of the older medinas of the interior. However, it's a great place to roam with no aggressive selling and far more locals than tourists wandering the narrow streets.
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H
Funduq Kaat Smen
Shops here are devoted to the sale of smen (rancid butter), olive oil, khlia (preserved meat) and honey. Chez Nafis Chergui has wild rosemary, orange flower or eucalyptus honey, argan oil (produced from the fruit of the argan tree) and olive oil. There are a couple of carpet shops at the entrance to the funduq.
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I
Souqs
The souks (markets) are filled with food stalls selling olives, dates and sweets, and carts loaded with fruit and vegetables. If you get lost ask someone to point you back towards the Djemaa el-Fna (preferably a shopkeeper – kids like to mislead tourists) or head towards the Koutoubia minaret (the tallest in town).
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J
Chemmaine Souk
Near the Kairaouine Mosque, this was once the place to buy candles. It's now resplendent with colourful embroidered velvet outfits for weddings and circumcisions, wedding chairs, fezzes and, curiously, lots of dried-fruit and nut stalls. The Chemmaine Funduq is in bad disrepair and is not open to the public.
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K
Qbieb Naqes
This little street is full of food stands. The qbieb (water conduit) itself is the small arched fountain at this crossroads in the middle of Sagha. Undecorated and seemingly insignificant, it was the main water conduit for this area and therefore an important element of daily life.
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