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Moulay Ismail's Imperial City

Moulay Ismail's Imperial City

Meknes · Morocco

5 stops
  • Audio guide
  • 4 languages
  • Quizzes
  • Offline

Walk through the monumental remnants of a lost capital designed to rival Versailles. You will encounter massive gates, sprawling squares, and the final resting place of the sultan. This route reveals the scale and ambition of the Alaouite dynasty's imperial vision.

The walk

  1. Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail

    Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail

    The final resting place of Morocco's longest-reigning sultan, built from plundered palace marble.

  2. Bab El Mansour Laalej

    Bab El Mansour Laalej

    A monumental ceremonial gate designed by a former slave to impress visitors to the royal citadel.

  3. Al-Hadeem Square

    Al-Hadeem Square

    Al-Hadeem Square is an attraction in Meknes, Morocco.

  4. Borj Belkari / برج بلقاري

    A seventeenth-century bastion tower turned museum of Rif pottery.

  5. Bab el-Khemis

    Bab el-Khemis

    The 'Thursday Gate' that once guarded the Jewish quarter and the court of Moulay Ismail.

Data: OpenStreetMap contributors and Google Places

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How a walk works

The guide starts talking when you arrive.

This page is the map and the itinerary. The app is the guide who walks it with you.

  1. Pick a walk

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  2. Pocket your phone

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  3. Listen as you arrive

    On a narrated walk the story starts on its own at each stop, so your eyes stay on the place.

Continue in the app

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  • A guide who talks

    Narration at every stop, starting on its own as you arrive — phone in your pocket.

  • The route, followed

    A live map with the turns called out, and a way back whenever you wander off it.

  • In four languages

    English, French, Spanish and Arabic — the words and the voice, not just the labels.

  • Something to answer

    A few questions as you leave a stop, written from the story you just heard.

  • Or build your own

    Pick the places you actually want and the app works out the order to walk them in.

  • The unglamorous things

    Toilets, pharmacies, cash points and water, without leaving the walk.

  • No signal needed

    Download a walk before you go and it works under a souk roof or on a plane.

  • Picks up where you left off

    Stop for lunch, come back tomorrow, and the walk is exactly where you left it.