Bou Inania Madrasa Meknes

The Bou Inania at Meknes is the smaller and quieter counterpart to the famous one in Fes, built in the mid-fourteenth century under the Marinids as a residential college for students at the Grand Mosque next door, and it follows the same programme: a courtyard with a marble basin, zellige to shoulder height, carved stucco with inscription bands above it, cedar cornices and screens, a prayer hall at one end, and two floors of small student cells behind lattice. What it has that the Fes one does not is access to the roof. A stair leads up onto the terrace above the cells, from which the whole Meknes medina is laid out - the green tiles of the Grand Mosque immediately alongside, roofs running to the walls, and the imperial city beyond - and that view is the reason to come. It is rarely crowded and takes an hour.

What you actually see

• A fourteenth-century college - courtyard, prayer hall and student cells in the Marinid programme.
• The roof terrace - the whole medina laid out, with the Grand Mosque's tiles alongside.
• Zellige and carved stucco - the standard registers, well preserved and uncrowded.
• The quiet counterpart - the same building type as Fes with a fraction of the visitors.

When to go

October to April; late afternoon on the roof. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is smaller and plainer than the Fes Bou Inania. The stairs to the roof are narrow and steep. The Grand Mosque next door is closed to non-Muslims. Entry is charged.

Nearby

El Hedim square and Bab Mansour are south; the medina souks surround it.