Prayer Times in Marrakech, Morocco

Praying in Marrakech

Marrakech — the Red City — is Morocco's great southern metropolis, a city of around 1 million people at the foot of the snow-capped High Atlas where the Sahara begins. Its 12th-century Koutoubia minaret has watched over the Jemaa el-Fnaa square for 800 years; by day the square hosts orange-juice carts and snake charmers, by night it becomes the world's greatest open-air food court, with a hundred grills smoking under the stars.

The Koutoubia Mosque's 77-metre minaret — the prototype for Seville's Giralda — is the city's compass; its call to prayer carries across the medina's souks and the garden courtyards of the riads. At 31.6°N on the edge of the desert, Marrakech's days are hot and its prayer times swing with the seasons: summer Fajr near 4:10 AM with Maghrib past 8:20 PM, winter Fajr around 6:25 AM with Maghrib near 6:05 PM. During Ramadan, the Jemaa el-Fnaa transforms — the grills pause at iftar as thousands break fast together in the square, then roar back to life for the night, serving harira, grilled meats and mint tea until the small hours. The city's red sandstone walls, which give it the nickname the Red City, glow copper at sunset — the hour when the call to prayer rises over the square.