Church / Cathedral / MonasteryMadrasa Ben Youssef

Frommers hails the Ben Youssef Medersa as "one of Marrakech's most important Islamic monuments" and describes the "former Koranic boarding school" as "a stunning example of the Saâdian dynasty's attention to detail and craftsmanship". The author states that this is "a peaceful and meditative place" but recommends visiting over lunchtime or late aft [more]

Fodors describe the Medersa as being "an extraordinarily well preserved 16th-century Koranic school" and also the "largest such institution" in North Africa. Originally built in the 14th century, it has "tiny, upper-level rooms that look like monks' cells, arranged around inner courtyards" which housed many of the approximately "900 students from m [more]

The Ben Youssef Medersa (or Madrasa) may be recognisable to viewers of the 1998 film 'Hideous Kinky' in which it "stood in for" an Algerian Sufic retreat. Medersas are a type of "Koranic school" and this one dates to the 14th Century and was enlarged to "its current dimensions" in the mid 16th Century and then "polished up" in the late 1990s by the [more]