Merenid Tombs

About Merenid Tombs

Moroccan cultural heritage site

The Marinid Tombs are the ruins of monumental tombs on a hill north of Fes el-Bali, attributed to the 14th century and once a royal burial ground of the Marinids, who ruled Morocco from the 13th to the 15th century and made Fez their capital after taking it in 1250. Before building Fes el-Jdid in 1276, they set up a fortified palace on this hill known as al-Qula, with a mosque and a bathhouse, hence its common name today, the Hill of the Marinids. Little is known about the site. Old chroniclers described its coloured marble gravestones and carved epitaphs, but only crumbling stone and rammed-earth walls survive, some of them among the oldest parts of the city's defences. What matters now is the position: it is the most famous viewpoint in Fez, looking down over the whole medina in the valley, its rooftops and minarets and the olive-covered hills around, at its best at sunset.

Where:

Fez, Morocco