El Hedim Square

El Hedim means the demolition, and that is literally what it commemorates: Moulay Ismail cleared an existing quarter in the late seventeenth century to make an esplanade in front of his new imperial gate, and the rubble went into the walls he was building. The square today is the hinge of Meknes, with Bab Mansour on one side and the medina on the other, a covered food market on its northern edge selling olives, preserved lemons, spices and meat, and cafes with upstairs terraces around it. In the evenings it fills with families, food stalls, musicians and occasional storytellers - a smaller and much less commercial version of what happens at the Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech, and one of the reasons people who prefer Meknes prefer it. The Dar Jamai museum, a nineteenth-century palace with a garden, opens off the square.

What you actually see

• A demolition site - a quarter cleared in the 1690s to make the esplanade.
• The food market - olives, preserved lemons and spices on the northern edge.
• Evening life - stalls, music and families, a quieter cousin of the Jemaa el-Fna.
• Dar Jamai - a nineteenth-century palace museum opening off the square.

When to go

October to April; evenings for the square in use. An hour or two.

Honest expectations

Cafe terraces charge a premium for the view. Hawkers and photo-with-animal operators work the square. It is much smaller and quieter than the Jemaa el-Fna - which is the point for some and a disappointment for others. Parking around it is difficult.

Nearby

Bab Mansour faces the square; the imperial city is beyond it.