Morocco Guide
Marrakesh
The Saadian Tombs
Opening time: Daily 8.30–11.45am & 2.30–5.45pm
Price: 10dh
The Saadian Tombs, belonging to the dynasty which ruled Morocco from 1554 to 1669, escaped plundering by the rapacious Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, probably because he feared bad luck if he desecrated them. The tombs lay half-ruined and half-forgotten until they were rediscovered by a French aerial survey in 1917. Restored, they are today the kasbah's main "sight" – over-lavish, maybe, in their exhaustive decoration, but dazzling nonetheless.
There are two main mausoleums in the enclosure. The finest is on the left as you come in – a beautiful group of three rooms, built to house Ahmed el Mansour's own tomb and completed within his lifetime. Continuing round from the courtyard entrance, the first hall is a prayer oratory, a room probably not intended for burial, though now almost littered with the thin marble stones of Saadian princes. It is here that Moulay Yazid was laid out, perhaps in purposeful obscurity, certainly in ironic contrast to the cursive inscription round the band of black and white zellij. Architecturally, the most important feature of this mausoleum is the mihrab, its pointed horseshoe arch supported by an incredibly delicate arrangement of columns.
The other mausoleum, older and less impressive, was built by Ahmed in place of an existing pavilion above the tombs of his mother, Lalla Messaouda, and of Mohammed ech Sheikh, the founder of the Saadian dynasty. It is again a series of three rooms, though two are hardly more than loggias. Messaouda's tomb is the niche below the dome in the outer chamber. The remains of Mohammed ech Sheikh are buried in the inner one.