Bab Agnaou

Marrakech is built of pise, rammed red earth, and its walls and most of its gates are that material - which is exactly why Bab Agnaou stands out. Built around 1188 under the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur as the ceremonial entrance to the royal kasbah, it is faced in cut blue-grey Guéliz stone, framed by a series of concentric horseshoe arches carved with a floral and shell pattern and an inscription band in Kufic script, with the whole composition set in a rectangular frame. It was not a defensive gate; the defensive one is beside it. The name is variously explained, including as a reference to a Sub-Saharan connection, and none of the explanations is settled. The towers that flanked it are gone. It stands next to the kasbah mosque and is the entrance most visitors use to reach the Saadian tombs.

What you actually see

• Stone in an earthen city - cut blue-grey masonry where everything else is rammed earth.
• Concentric arches - carved floral and shell bands framed in a rectangle.
• A Kufic inscription - a script band running round the composition.
• A ceremonial entrance - built for display, with the defensive gate alongside.

When to go

October to April; late afternoon light on the stone. Half an hour.

Honest expectations

It is a gate and the visit is brief. The flanking towers no longer exist. The area outside is busy with traffic and parking. Guides offering to explain it expect payment.

Nearby

The Saadian tombs and the kasbah mosque are inside the gate; the Jemaa el-Fna is north.