Bab Berdaine

Bab Berdaine was built in the seventeenth century under Moulay Ismail as the main northern entrance to the Meknes medina, and it is the counterpart to Bab Mansour on the other side - large, symmetrical, with a horseshoe arch between two square bastions capped by green-tiled pyramidal roofs, in worked stone and brick with less zellige than Mansour and more presence for it. The name means the gate of the packsaddlers. Immediately outside is a large cemetery and the Sidi Ben Aissa zaouia, the centre of an important Sufi order whose annual moussem draws large numbers to Meknes. One bastion partly collapsed in 2016 and was rebuilt. The quarter inside is residential and workaday, with the wool and carpet souks nearby, and it is a much quieter part of the medina than the stretch around El Hedim.

History

A gate of this name was one of the original gates of the city the Almoravids fortified in the 11th century, and that medieval gate partly survives just south of the present one. The current gate at the north end of the medina was built under the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, who made Meknes his capital and refortified it: Ibn Zaydan gives 1695 for its completion, though other sources say 1687 or 1720, and the Bab al-Barda'in Mosque nearby was finished in 1709, with a public fountain beside it. All trade and communications with the north entered here, and the name probably comes from a market of packsaddle makers, the berda'in, that stood nearby (Wikipedia, Bab al-Barda'in).

The main sights

• Two green-tiled bastions - square towers with pyramid roofs flanking the arch.
• A seventeenth-century gate - built under Moulay Ismail as the northern entrance.
• A rebuilt bastion - one partly collapsed in 2016 and reconstructed.
• A quiet quarter - residential lanes and the wool souks inside the gate.

When to go

October to April. Half an hour, walking up through the medina.

What to expect

There is no interior to enter - it is a gate seen from either side. The cemetery outside is a place of prayer, not a viewpoint. The walk up through the souks takes twenty minutes and is easy to lose. Traffic outside the gate is heavy.

Nearby

The Sidi Ben Aissa zaouia is outside the gate; El Hedim is south through the medina.

Key facts