Marrakech is the cultural center of morocco, the red city was founded in 1062 by Yusuf Ibn Tashefin the first king of Almoravid empire,he come to Al-andalus from Africa in order to help Muslims fight against Alfonso VI ultimately achieving victory of the reformist movement in 1060,he continued to expand his territorial base across the Maghreb,when he arrived to the region called El-Haouz “Marrakech ” and after studying the emplacement its geography and nature, protected by the Atlas mountains he decide to choose Marrakech as a capital of the Almoravid,
another reason why the king Yusuf took this decision because the city of Marrakech was closed enough to expand into northern Morocco but it also wasn’t too far from the Sahara so it kipt the Almoravids close to their ancestral homeland.
Marrakech remained relatively insignificant in terms of commerce and scholarship because of the bareen location but Yusuf’s son Ali changed the city and made it an imperial city he improved the water supply by building cisterns and underground water channels therefore the city growed, but Almoravid time power come to an end on account of a religious movement called Almohads they are strict in thier outlook.
Thinks to Tashfeen guidance Marrakech grew house by house he built mosques, tanneries was opened and this is where you get the famous moroccan leather but Marrakech was taken in 1147 by the Almohads they destroyed all religious building built by Amoravids because they claimed that mosques are not correctly orientated, the history with Almohads is quit rich as well , a few years later they redesigned the city , among thier architectural contributions the most famous example is la Koutoubia mosque which was inspired by Andalus Islamic architecture it still dominates the skyline of the old city,another area in which the Almuhads made a tremendous contribution to Marrakech was in the availability of water, in this part of the world water is naturally a big deal when the Almuhads were able to expand on the Almoravids waterworks by creating a wider irrigation system that included open-air canals it allowed water to flow down from the nearby atlas mountains to Marrakech and thereby established the menara and agdal gardens. Marrakech represents a cultural unit, a powerful civilization in history , consequently millions of tourists flock to discover this imperial city.
