Small Courtyard at Bahia Palace
The Bahia Palace was much larger than I anticipated. I would have imagined that even a palace could not occupy too much space in a medina which is usually very crowded. The Bahia Palace is like a breath of fresh air in the medina of Marrakesh because of the distinct lack of shops. Obviously, they can’t turn the Bahia Palace into a shopping center but it is certainly larger than a lot of shopping centers. The palace was built for the use of Ahmed Ben Moussa for personal and even official purposes. I entered another courtyard which looks similar to some courtyards which I have seen elsewhere.
Entrance to One of the Rooms at the Bahia Palace
One thing which makes this one special is the use of marble on the floor of the courtyard and a basin in the center of it all. There are four rooms which surround the courtyard and it is my understanding that these are private apartments. I know that the grand vizier had four wives, he might have let them stay here. One thing to note was that the rooms would have equal size which equates to their status. Incidentally, the name of the Bahia Palace came from one of the wives. That means all four of them are equal in rank. If you were the wife, it must have been strange to be living with the three others just withing a stone’s throw of each other. Maybe this kind of thing is common back then.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/BahiaPalace.kmz} zoom=19]