Jemaa el-Fna

Jemaa el-Fna Square is one of the main cultural spaces in Marrakesh and one of the city’s symbols. It is a triangular square at the entrance of the Medina, surrounded by restaurants, stands and public buildings. It brings together everyday commercial activity and many kinds of entertainment, and it is a meeting point for local people and people from elsewhere.

All through the day and well into the night, the square offers services such as dental care, traditional medicine, fortune-telling, preaching and henna tattooing. Water-carrying, fruit and traditional food may be bought there. Visitors may also encounter storytellers, poets, snake-charmers, Berber musicians (mazighen), Gnaoua dancers and senthir (hajouj) players. The oral expressions of bards (imayazen) are continually renewed, as they combine speech and gesture to teach, entertain and charm the audience, and now improvise on an outline of an ancient text to make their recital accessible to a wider audience.

The square is a major place of cultural exchange. It has enjoyed protection as part of Morocco’s artistic heritage since 1922. UNESCO states that urbanization, especially real-estate speculation and the development of the road infrastructure, are serious threats to the cultural space itself, and that the cultural practices may suffer acculturation, also caused by widespread tourism. The archive has not sourced visitor conduct.

Jemaa el-Fna is one of the main cultural spaces in Marrakesh and a symbol of the city. It holds a unique concentration of popular Moroccan cultural traditions expressed through musical, religious and artistic forms, and it is a major place of cultural exchange. The square has enjoyed protection as part of Morocco’s artistic heritage since 1922. Its living practices are recognised in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, inscribed 2008 (3.COM), originally proclaimed 2001. The source also identifies serious threats to the cultural space itself from urbanization, in particular real estate speculation and the development of the road infrastructure, and says the cultural practices may suffer acculturation, also caused by widespread tourism.