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Rang

The Red City

Marrakech

Walls of red earth ring the old city, and building rules keep new streets in the same warm pink-red.

Marrakech
Photo: CS.D., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Marrakech is marrakech red

Marrakech was founded in the 11th century by the Almoravids on a plain below the High Atlas mountains. In the 1120s they ringed it with a wall about nineteen kilometres long, built of pisé, earth rammed hard between boards. The local earth is rich in iron, which gives a colour between salmon pink and red ochre. It earned the city the name the Red City. Rules today require buildings to be finished in similar tones, so even new districts match. At sunset the walls deepen to orange with the snow of the Atlas behind. One sharp contrast is the Majorelle Garden, where the French painter Jacques Majorelle used an intense cobalt blue.

Marrakech red#B5553CMajorelle blue#6050DCAtlas snow#F2F2F0Palm green#4F7F45Saffron#F4C430

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Marrakech

OchreA natural earth pigment ranging from yellow to deep orange or brownMajorelle BlueA vivid deep blue named for artist Jacques Majorelle and his Marrakesh garden
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Marrakesh" on Wikipedia. If you know Marrakech and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇲🇦 The Blue PearlChefchaouenA mountain town in northern Morocco whose lanes, steps and doors are washed in many shades of blue.🇲🇦 Dye vats and Fez blueFezA medieval city with open-air leather dye pits like a paintbox, and pottery painted in cobalt blue.🇲🇦 The red earth fortress villageAït BenhaddouA fortified village of red-brown earth climbing a hill on the old caravan road south of the Atlas.🇲🇦 White walls, painted muralsAsilahA whitewashed Atlantic town where artists paint new murals on the medina walls each summer.🇲🇦 Blue boats and white wallsEssaouiraA windy Atlantic port of white houses with blue shutters, and a harbour packed with blue fishing boats.🇮🇳 The open-air gallery of RajasthanShekhawatiMerchant mansions in the towns of north Rajasthan are covered inside and out with painted murals.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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