Is Morocco good for architecture lovers (Islamic art, zellige)?

If you love architecture, Morocco may spoil you for anywhere else. The Moroccan-Andalusian style — born of the same culture that built the Alhambra — is a complete sensory system: geometric zellige mosaic in dazzling colour, lacy carved plaster (gebs), honeycombed muqarnas ceilings, deep-carved cedar, horseshoe and scalloped arches, and the cool, inward-looking courtyard with its central fountain. Once you learn to read these elements, every doorway and madrasa becomes a thrill. I find architecture-minded guests slow right down here, because there's so much to look at.

The medersas (Quranic colleges) are the purest concentration of the art. In Fes, the 14th-century Bou Inania and the jewel-box Al-Attarine Medersa are masterpieces of Marinid craftsmanship — every surface zellige below, carved stucco above, cedar at the top. In Marrakech, the 16th-century Ben Youssef Medersa, recently restored, wraps a huge tiled courtyard and reflecting pool in carving and student cells; it's arguably the single most photographed interior in the country, and deservedly so. These small spaces reward unhurried, repeated looking.

Then the grand statements. The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is a modern wonder — one of the largest mosques on earth, partly over the Atlantic, its minaret soaring, its hand-carved cedar and marble and zellige executed by thousands of master craftsmen, and (rare for Morocco) open to non-Muslim visitors on guided tours. The Bahia Palace in Marrakech is a sumptuous 19th-century vizier's palace of painted ceilings and courtyard gardens; the Saadian Tombs nearby are a tiny perfect masterpiece of marble and muqarnas. And don't overlook the everyday: ornate medina gateways like Bab Bou Jeloud, fountains, and the riad houses themselves.

For range, add the contrasts: the earthen Berber architecture of the south — the great kasbahs of Aït Benhaddou and Telouet, and the fortified granary ksour of the Draa and Dades valleys — speaks a completely different, equally beautiful structural language of rammed earth and tower. Chefchaouen's blue-washed lanes and Tetouan's and Tangier's Spanish-Moorish quarters add yet more. A great way to go deeper is a hands-on zellige or tadelakt workshop in Fes or Marrakech, watching artisans cut and lay tile by hand. Architecturally, this is one of the most rewarding countries on the planet.