Ben Youssef Mosque
Three mosques have stood on this spot since 1071 — the Almohads demolished the second, claiming it faced the wrong direction.
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Ali ibn Yusuf spent nearly 60,000 gold dinars on a mosque so dominant that early Marrakesh arranged its streets and souqs around it. The Almohads tore it down as a political act framed as a correction, then built the Kutubiyya instead. The current building is an 1819-20 reconstruction layered on that contested ground.
What to look for
- The Almoravid Qubba immediately next door — the sole substantial survivor from the 12th-century original, most likely its ablutions hall
- The courtyard: the Almoravid mosque here was called Masjid al-Siqaya, 'mosque of the fountain,' named for a large fountain with a marble basin
- The overall footprint — the Almoravid mosque that once occupied this site measured 120 by 80 metres, the largest in the entire Almoravid empire
Located in Marrakesh's Medina quarter; combine with the Almoravid Qubba directly adjacent, the only standing fragment of the 12th-century complex.
Ben Youssef Mosque is one of 16 sights worth the detour in Marrakesh, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Marrakesh pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Marrakesh
- Koutoubia MosqueThe 77-metre minaret that likely gave Seville's Giralda its blueprint still defines Marrakesh's skyline nine centuries on.
- Jemaa el-FnaaA square whose name is a dark joke — a sultan's grand mosque, abandoned to plague, went from "Mosque of Tranquility" to "Mosque of Ruination" by popular sarcasm.
- Majorelle GardenA French painter patented his own shade of cobalt blue — you are about to walk inside the canvas.
- Marrakesh StadiumA 45,240-seat arena already stamped by World Cup history — and carrying a design flaw critics spotted on day one.
- Ben Youssef MadrasaOnce the largest Islamic college in North Africa, built to train 800 scholars at a time.
- Menara GardensA reservoir dug in 1157, a two-story pavilion at its edge, and the High Atlas Mountains rising behind it — this is the view Marrakesh is measured against.