Mouassine Fountain

You're standing before one of the most beautiful public fountains in Marrakech, part of the great complex the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib built in the 16th century around the Mouassine Mosque.

1A new neighbourhood

Around 1557-1558, the sultan moved the Jewish community out of this area to the new Mellah beside the kasbah. On the land left free, which included an old Jewish cemetery, he built between 1562 and 1573 a mosque with a madrasa, a hammam, a library, a Quranic school and this fountain. It was a way of bringing services and prestige to a growing district.

2For people and animals

Take a look at the façade. It has four bays: three of them form a trough for pack animals, donkeys and mules, and the fourth is the fountain for people. A wooden bar kept the animals away from the drinking water. Water arrived through the khettaras, underground channels that brought it in from outside the city.

The fountain was thoroughly renovated around 1867, but the carved cedar brackets and lintel that hold up the little roof are original 16th-century work.

The origin of the name Mouassine is uncertain: it has been linked to a family of sharifs or to knife-makers, but neither explanation has been proven.

3What to look for

• The three arches of the animal trough.
• The green-tiled canopy over the people's fountain.
• The carved cedar brackets, from the 16th century.