Bahia Palace

This guide to Bahia Palace in Marrakesh traces the rise of the vizier Bou Ahmed, whose father Si Moussa clawed his way from slavery to become grand vizier before him, and the decade of craftsmen who carved these cedar ceilings and laid the zellige tile by hand. It lingers in the Grand Courtyard's imported Italian marble and the ring of small chambers that once housed his harem of four wives and roughly two dozen concubines. Look closely at the carved doors ringing the courtyards — each once opened onto a private world.