Riad Zitoun isn’t one street but two: Riad Zitoun Jdid (“new”) and Riad Zitoun Kedim (“old”), running roughly parallel south from the edge of Jemaa el-Fna toward the Bahia Palace and the Kasbah quarter beyond. Both take their name from an olive grove (zitoun) that stood somewhere along here before the medina’s current street pattern solidified — a detail that’s easy to forget walking past the current density of guesthouses, tanneries-turned-shops and spice stalls, none of which give much clue to the quarter’s quieter, more agricultural past.
This is genuinely one of the medina’s most riad-dense stretches, and for a specific, identifiable reason: the neighbourhood sits close enough to Jemaa el-Fna to be genuinely convenient, while being residential and low-key enough that most of what lines these two streets is guesthouses and small shops rather than the tourist-facing souk stalls further north. It’s also the obvious, most direct approach route to the Bahia Palace itself, which sits at the southern end of the quarter, and most visitors staying anywhere nearby end up walking one of these two streets at least once a day without necessarily registering which one it is.
| Where | Southern medina, between Jemaa el-Fna and the Kasbah |
| Cost | Free to walk; Bahia Palace entry around 100 MAD (€9.50) |
| Time needed | Half a day for the Bahia Palace and the streets around it |
| Getting there | 10-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fna, or a taxi to the Bahia Palace entrance |
| Best time | Morning for the palace, before tour bus groups build up |
The Bahia Palace
The Bahia Palace — the name means “brilliance” — was built in the late 19th century for Si Moussa, grand vizier to the sultan, and later expanded by his son Bou Ahmed, and it’s the single most-visited monument in this part of the medina for good reason: room after room of carved cedar ceilings, zellige tilework and painted stucco, arranged around a series of courtyards and gardens on a scale that dwarfs most riads guests actually stay in. Unlike El Badi Palace nearby, the Bahia was never stripped of its original decoration, which is exactly why it consistently draws the bigger crowds of the two.
Those crowds are the main practical issue here: by mid-morning in high season, the Bahia can feel genuinely congested, with tour groups moving through in tight blocks that make it hard to linger in any one room for long. Arriving right at opening (9am) or visiting in the final hour before close avoids the worst of it, and either window also gives noticeably better, softer light for photographs of the carved ceilings.
Entry runs around 100 MAD — this is unambiguously a paid monument, not a free one — and a skip-the-line entry ticket with a digital audioguide is worth it in peak season purely to avoid the ticket queue. Full visiting details, including a suggested room-by-room walking order, are in the Bahia Palace guide.
Bou Ahmed and why the Bahia is so large
The Bahia’s scale owes more to politics than architecture in the usual sense. Bou Ahmed, who inherited and expanded the palace after his father Si Moussa, was grand vizier and effectively the power behind the throne for much of the 1890s, and he built the harem quarters, gardens and grand reception rooms specifically to project wealth and authority rivalling the sultan’s own palaces. After his death in 1900, the palace was reportedly stripped of its most valuable contents by rivals within days, which is part of why so many rooms today are architecturally spectacular but sparsely furnished — the decoration is structural (carved wood, painted ceilings, zellige) rather than in the furniture, which is exactly what survived.
Knowing that context changes how the empty rooms read: not an oversight in the restoration, but a genuine reflection of how quickly a powerful vizier’s fortune could unravel once his patron died and his rivals moved in. It’s worth keeping in mind walking through, since a first-time visitor without any background can otherwise wonder why a palace this large feels so unfurnished in places.
The Tiskiwin house
A short walk from the Bahia, the Maison Tiskiwin holds the private collection of Dutch-born anthropologist Bert Flint, arranged to trace the historic trans-Saharan trade routes between Marrakech and Timbuktu through textiles, jewellery and everyday objects gathered over decades of fieldwork.
It’s a small museum — one traditional house, a manageable loop of rooms — and one of the more genuinely informative stops in the medina precisely because it isn’t trying to be comprehensive, just specific and well-curated. Flint himself lived in the house until his death in 2020, and much of the collection reflects a lifetime of fieldwork rather than a museum’s institutional acquisitions, which gives the displays a personal, first-hand quality that’s rare among Marrakech’s larger collections.
Combine it with the Bahia on the same morning; the walk between them takes under ten minutes, and the contrast between the palace’s scale and the Tiskiwin’s intimacy makes for a genuinely good pairing rather than two unrelated stops. See the Marrakech museums guide for how it compares with the medina’s other small collections.
What else the streets themselves hold
Beyond the guesthouses, both Riad Zitoun streets carry a genuine mix of small everyday shops — tailors, spice sellers, a scattering of leather workshops that supply rather than compete with the main tanneries — alongside the newer boutiques that have opened to serve the neighbourhood’s riad guests. It’s a good stretch for unhurried window shopping precisely because it isn’t as densely commercial as the souks further north, and the hassle level here drops noticeably once you’re a block or two off the direct route between the square and the palace.
A combined tour taking in the Bahia Palace, the Kasbah and the medina more broadly, such as this Bahia Palace, Kasbah and medina tour with a sand tea tasting, is a reasonable way to see the quarter’s highlights in a single guided outing if you’d rather not plan the walking order yourself.
Walking the two streets in a sensible order
The simplest way to get a feel for the quarter is to treat it as a loop rather than a straight line. Leave the square by one of the two streets, walk south at an easy pace, visit the palace, and come back by the other. That way you see both lanes without retracing your steps, and you notice how different they feel from one another: one tends to be busier with passing foot traffic, the other quieter and more residential. Which is which can change with the hour, so it is worth simply paying attention rather than trusting a rule of thumb.
Keep the walk loose. The pleasure of this part of the medina is in the side turnings, the doorways with their studded wooden doors, the cats asleep on window ledges and the occasional glimpse into a courtyard through a half-open door. If you want a more structured route that links the quarter to the rest of the old city, the medina walking route lays out a full loop, and this stretch slots into it naturally. Anyone who prefers to be told where to turn will also find the souks guide useful for the northern end of the same walk.
A few habits make the streets easier. Carry small change for the little purchases that come up along the way. Wear shoes that cope with uneven paving. Keep a rough sense of direction by remembering that the palace lies at the southern end, so if you are walking away from the square you are heading the right way. If a stranger offers to show you a shortcut or tells you a street is closed, treat it with the usual caution; the scams guide explains the common approaches, and the hassle article puts them in a calmer, more realistic light than most forum posts do.
Eating and drinking around the quarter
You will not struggle for somewhere to sit down. Small cafés and family-run restaurants are scattered along both streets and the lanes that lead off them, and many riads serve breakfast, dinner or both to guests. The best approach is to eat where the locals are eating or where you see a short, plain menu rather than a long one in five languages. After a morning at the palace, a glass of mint tea in a quiet corner is hard to beat, and the mint tea guide explains how it is poured and why it is served the way it is.
For bigger meals, the square is a short walk north, and the food guide covers what to order and what to avoid. If the evening stalls appeal, the Jemaa el-Fna food stalls guide will help you choose with a little more confidence. Many visitors like to do the reverse of the morning routine: palace and museum by day, then back toward the square as the light drops.
Light, photography and quiet corners
Because the quarter is residential, it rewards early and late hours. In the morning the lanes are calm, shutters are still going up, and the soft light picks out the texture of the old walls and doors. Late in the day the same streets turn warm and golden. Midday light is harsher and the narrow lanes can swing between glare and deep shade, which makes photography harder, so it is a good moment for lunch or a rest at your riad instead.
Be considerate with a camera. Ask before photographing people or their shops, and do not point a lens into private doorways. The photography guide has practical advice on how to take good pictures in the medina without being intrusive, and much of it applies directly to this part of town.
Choosing this quarter over others
Riad Zitoun is not the only sensible base in the old city, and it helps to know what you are trading. Compared with the lanes closer to the square, it is calmer. Compared with the northern medina, it is a little less commercial and more residential. If you want to weigh your options, the medina versus Gueliz comparison explains the wider choice between old and new town, and the riad versus hotel guide helps you decide what kind of stay suits you. Travellers with children may want to read the list of family riads before settling on a particular guesthouse, since steep stairs and open courtyards are not for everyone.
For a first visit, this quarter works well as a base because it keeps the main sights within walking distance without immersing you in the noisiest part of the city. If you are still planning the shape of your trip, the first-time guide and the two-day itinerary show where a morning here fits into a short stay, while the three-day itinerary leaves room to explore at a gentler pace.
Pairing the quarter with other sights
The palace sits close to several other historic sites, and it is worth thinking of the morning as part of a wider cluster. The ruined El Badi Palace is a natural comparison, and the Saadian Tombs are in the same general direction. On the other side of the medina, the Ben Youssef Madrasa offers another look at traditional decoration. Together they make a full day of heritage sightseeing, though trying to see all of them in one go is tiring, so choose two or three and leave the rest for another morning.
If you prefer to understand what you are looking at, a guided outing that links several of these stops with commentary can save time on a short trip. The guided tour versus independent guide explains when each approach makes sense, and the Marrakech museums guide covers the smaller collections worth adding.
Staying in Riad Zitoun
Riads along both Riad Zitoun streets and the smaller derbs branching off them offer some of the medina’s best value-for-location combinations — walkable to Jemaa el-Fna, walkable to the Bahia and Kasbah, and generally a notch quieter than guesthouses immediately on the square itself, without losing much in the way of genuine convenience for meals and daily errands. As with any medina riad, expect to arrange a meeting point for your first arrival rather than relying on an address a taxi driver can navigate to directly. See staying in a riad for what a typical booking here involves.
The wider Jewish heritage of the quarter
The southern medina, including the streets toward the Mellah, carries visible layers of Marrakech’s Jewish history alongside its Muslim and colonial-era heritage, and a guided outing such as this Moroccan Jewish heritage experience with lunch or dinner connects the Bahia quarter’s history to the Mellah proper, a short walk further south.
Nearby
Riad Zitoun connects Jemaa el-Fna to the Kasbah and the Mellah, making it the natural corridor for a morning that moves from the square toward the palaces. For the wider medina context, including a structured route through the area’s other landmarks, see the Marrakech medina.
