Saadian Tombs

Behind the Kasbah Mosque in front of you lies the dynastic cemetery of the Saadians, the family that ruled Morocco for much of the 16th and 17th centuries.

1A family mausoleum

The oldest mausoleum is attributed to Abdallah al-Ghalib, who began it between 1557 and 1574. Buried there are Mohammed al-Shaykh, the founder of Saadian power in Marrakech, murdered in 1557, and Lalla Mas'uda, mother of the great sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who died in 1591.

Al-Mansur himself had a second, more lavish building raised for his own burial. He was laid to rest in 1603 in the Hall of the Twelve Columns, with Carrara marble columns, a cedar dome and carved stucco walls. Altogether there are 56 marble tombstones with epitaphs and about a hundred more graves marked only with tiles.

2Forgotten and rediscovered

When the Alaouite dynasty took power, Sultan Moulay Ismail restricted access to the necropolis and left it hemmed in by other buildings. In 1917 the fine arts service of the French protectorate 'rediscovered' it and opened the passage you walk through today.

It's often said that the tombs were found thanks to an aerial photograph; scholarly sources don't confirm it.

3What to look for

• The Kasbah Mosque minaret, with its great lattice of green tiles.
• The entrance passage, so narrow it explains how the site could be overlooked.
• The storks that often nest on the walls around here.