Is the El Badi Palace in Marrakech worth visiting?

El Badi ("the Incomparable") was, four centuries ago, exactly that — a palace of 360 rooms clad in Italian marble, gold and onyx, built by the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur to humble every visiting ambassador. What you walk into today is its ghost: a colossal rectangular courtyard, a long central pool, sunken gardens of orange trees, and high pisé walls stripped bare when a later sultan carted off the riches to build Meknes. It is a ruin, and you should arrive knowing that — there is no jewel-box interior to gawp at here.

What makes it worth the ticket is the atmosphere. There is something genuinely moving about standing in that immense, silent void and imagining the splendour described by old chronicles, while white storks clatter their beaks on enormous nests perched along the ramparts. Climb the terraces and you get one of the best free-ish panoramas in Marrakech: the Atlas Mountains on a clear day, the Koutoubia minaret, a sea of rooftops. The original minbar (pulpit) from the Koutoubia Mosque is sometimes displayed in a small on-site museum room, and it is a masterpiece worth seeking out.

My practical tips: go in the morning light or late afternoon when the walls glow ochre and the storks are active — midday sun in that shadeless courtyard is brutal. It pairs perfectly with the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia Palace, all clustered in the same southern Kasbah district, so do them as a half-day on foot. Budget 45 minutes to an hour; it is not large once you have wandered the terraces. Children tend to love the storks and the wide-open running space.

Honest verdict: El Badi is not a must-see on the level of Bahia or the Saadian Tombs, and if your trip is tight you could skip it without regret. But it is inexpensive, atmospheric, blissfully uncrowded compared with the souks, and rewards anyone who enjoys romantic ruins and good views over polished perfection. I happily send history-minded travellers here; I steer people chasing intricate Moroccan craftsmanship next door to the tombs instead.