Bab Doukkala Mosque

This guide to Bab Doukkala Mosque in Marrakesh follows Lalla Mas'uda, the Saadian queen who commissioned the complex in 1557 in her own name, not her husband's or her son's, and became known locally as the Mosque of the Free One. You'll hear how her building project unfolded alongside the sultan's reordering of Marrakesh, including the relocation of the city's Jewish community, and how the minaret and its zigzag stonework were added only decades later. The guide also traces the honeycombed dome added nearly three centuries after Mas'uda broke ground.