9 of the most unexpected places to discover in Marrakesh

Marrakesh fizzes with life. The default blue sky sings against peach-gold architecture. Whether it’s your first visit or 15th, the technicolor souqs and street theatrics of Djemaa El Fna, the city’s perpetually filled main square, exert a magnetic pull.

And this mysterious, magical city continues to deliver surprises even beyond its top sights. Few other destinations lend themselves as well to happenstance – getting lost in the tumult of a crowd, diving into hidden alleyways, uncovering the unexpected. Find your way to these nine places, just waiting to be discovered during your visit to Marrakesh.

1. Cactus Thiemann

Best for plant lovers

On the outskirts of Marrakesh is the spiky expanse of Cactus Thiemann, which offers the rare experience of wandering amid cacti as tall as buildings in a beautiful setting backed by the muscular Atlas Mountains. More than 150 varieties of cacti grow here, some ablaze with startlingly bright and alien-seeming flowers. Africa’s largest cactus farm, this little known sight was started by visiting German engineer Hans Thiemann, who came to Morocco in the 1960s to pursue his passion for the plants, and is now run by his descendants.

Getting there: As of January 2026, visits are by reservation only, so when you book tickets (120 Moroccan dirham), also ask for a recommendation for a driver who knows the way as it’s tricky to find.

An ornate silvery teapot, a woven basket with bread and a glass of tea sit on a tiled table in a shaded courtyard in Marrakesh. — The Amal Center's courtyard. Chris Griffiths/Lonely Planet

2. Amal Center

Best for feasting with a conscience

The tree-shaded, sun-dappled courtyard restaurant at the Amal Center is much more than meets the eye. At first glance, it’s traditional home-cooked food in a lovely setting, but Amal is not just about eating. Founded by Nora Belahcen Fitzgerald after meeting a single mother in Marrakesh, this nonprofit organization sets out to empower local women. The restaurant provides training courses for women experiencing financial difficulty so that they’re able to find work.

Planning tip: You can also take the center's cooking courses and learn to make a mean tajine as well as eat the final dish.

3. Sidi Ghanem

Best for shopping

The shiny brassware and traditional Berber rugs of the souqs may be calling you, but where do seriously savvy shoppers in Marrakesh seek out contemporary design? The industrial area of Sidi Ghanem. It’s around 4km from the center, and you can take a round-trip taxi to check out workshops, outlets and showrooms that specialize in the art of life, such as artisanal candles at Cote Bougie, scents and creams at Les Sens de Marrakech or ceramics at LRNCE.

The prayer hall of a synagogue in Marrakesh has blue patterned carpets and tiled walls; wooden chairs with blue cushions are lined against the wall and in the center of the space. — Slat al-Azama Synagogue. Lois GoBe/Shutterstock

4. Slat al-Azama Synagogue

Best for Jewish history

Wandering through Marrakesh’s Jewish quarter, called the mellah, feels like you’ve stumbled onto a secret. Even though it’s a mere few paces from the center, the mellah has an atmosphere all its own, with Stars of David etched above doorways and shaded balconies overlooking the narrow lanes. You can visit the Slat al-Azama Synagogue, originally built in 1492 and still in use; explore the Mellah Market, renowned for its fabric; and visit the eerie Miaara Jewish Cemetery, a city of the dead stretching out into the distance, with uniform rounded tombs, some whitewashed and some topped with stars or Hebrew inscriptions.

5. Hassan Hajjaj at Riad Yima

Best for contemporary art

Hassan Hajjaj is an artist and sculptor known for his photographs of locals in fabulous traditional dress, ablaze with pop-art color and in rock-star poses against the russet-pink walls of the medina. Nicknamed Marrakesh’s Andy Warhol, Hajjaj himself is no up-and-comer – his work is shown internationally – but savvy visitors can visit his gallery, tea room and shop in the beautifully decorated Riad Yima. It’s so alight with color that it’s like stepping into one of his photographs, and this gallery is designed to be hands-on, eschewing the don’t-touch standard of regular art shows.

A vendor in a white shirt and red skullcap leans over a countertop, reaching toward a large piece of slow-roasted meat; people and awnings are visible in the alley in the background, and there is a silvery teapot and a large pottery vessel on the counter. — Mechoui Alley. Chris Griffiths/Lonely Planet

6. Mechoui Alley

Best for roasted meat

Not one for the fainthearted (there are disembodied sheep heads, dear reader), Mechoui Alley behind the olive market in the medina is where those in the know head to dine on mechoui (fragrant slow-roasted lamb). Each shop has an underground pit, into which lamb is lowered to cook over wood fires until it falls off the bone. The hole-in-the-wall food stands are staffed by white-robed men and run by generations of the same families. The menu is limited – tanjia (slow-cooked stew), mechoui and roasted sheep’s head – but it's worth lunching on the cumin-scented meat at a seat behind the counter while you watch the world go by.

7. Dar Bellarj

Best cultural hub

One of the many secrets of Marrakesh’s mazelike medina is Dar Bellarj. If you didn’t know, you’d walk past it, tucked away as it is beside Ali Ben Youssef Medersa. Enter the doorway and you’re in a riad, a traditional house centered on a gracious, shady courtyard, with alcoves off the whitewashed colonnades of the inner courtyard. This arts center celebrates living culture, with changing exhibitions on everything from Amazigh tattoos, photographic portraits and local weaving. Besides the always-worth-a-look exhibits, it’s an ideal hidden escape from the frenetic souqs and a serene place for mint tea.

Yellow- and terracotta-colored low-rise buildings sit behind a foreground of green leafy trees, with snow-capped mountains in the background, beneath a cloudy, gray sky. — Amizmiz. saad315/Shutterstock

8. Amizmiz

Best for a day trip

Occasionally you may crave a breather from the intensity of the city, and it only takes a short trip outside Marrakesh to reach another world. In the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, Amizmiz is a small Amazigh village some 50km south of the city. Once there, you can walk out into the lush countryside, with snow-dusted mountains in the distance.

Planning tip: Time your visit for a Tuesday and you’ll experience the town’s weekly market, when nearby villagers descend from all around to sell crafts, produce and spices.

9. Riad Farnatchi

Best for ancient recipes

The medina harbors many restaurants, but Le Trou au Mur, which means "hole in the wall" in French, steps outside the regular offerings of tajine and couscous. While it has gained popularity, this place, lined in stucco and portraits lent from the nearby Maison de la Photographie, feels truly hidden away – you’ll plunge into the labyrinth of medina streets to find the doorway off a narrow lane. The owners and chefs have set out to revive ancient cooking techniques and ingredients, with out-of-the-ordinary dishes such as tihane, stuffed offal with spiced kefta (meatballs), olives and preserved lemon; velvety mechoui from the restaurant’s oven; and fish baked with vermicelli and preserved lemons.