Almoravid Koubba

This guide to the Almoravid Koubba in Marrakesh opens in 1947, when workers digging near the Ben Youssef Mosque struck a sealed stone dome eight meters underground, the only Almoravid structure left standing in the city. You'll hear how French scholars Henri Terrasse and Jacques Meunié uncovered it and pieced together why it alone survived while an entire dynasty's palaces and mosques vanished elsewhere. Look for the carved inscription band near the top, part of it deliberately chiseled away by a later ruler.