Mouassine

This guide to Mouassine in Marrakesh's medina starts with a sultan who could level a neighborhood but not, it turns out, win every argument. It traces how the Saadian ruler Abdallah al-Ghalib seized the city in 1557, forced the Jewish community from this quarter to the newly built Mellah, and raised a mosque, school and fountain on the cleared ground. You'll hear about the carved cedar fountain's double life, giving drinking water to passersby and troughs for pack animals hauling market goods. Look up at the mosque's unusually short minaret before you move on.