What is the story behind the imperial cities?

The 'imperial cities' is one of the most useful frames for understanding Morocco, because it tells you that the capital moved — each great dynasty tended to anchor itself in its own city, so the four imperial cities are essentially four chapters of the same royal story. They are Fes, Marrakech, Meknes, and Rabat, and visiting them in sequence is like walking forward through the centuries. Each was once the beating political and spiritual heart of the empire, and each still wears that grandeur.

Fes is the eldest, founded by the Idrisids in the late 8th century and Morocco's first capital and enduring spiritual centre — home to al-Qarawiyyin, often called the world's oldest continuously operating university. Marrakech came next, founded by the Almoravids in the 11th century as their southern desert-edge capital; the Almohads and Saadians enriched it, and it gave the whole country its name. These two are the giants — Fes the deep, scholarly soul, Marrakech the flamboyant showpiece — and the rivalry between north and south runs through Moroccan history.

Meknes is the one travellers underrate, and its story is essentially one obsessive man. In the late 17th century the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail made Meknes his capital and tried to build a North African Versailles — monumental gates like the staggering Bab Mansour, twenty-five kilometres of walls, vast granaries and royal stables for thousands of horses. He was a contemporary and admirer-rival of Louis XIV, and the scale of his ambition is still jaw-dropping. Nearby Volubilis, the Roman city, lets you bolt an even older empire onto the visit.

Rabat completes the set and bridges past and present. The Almohads began it in the 12th century — the unfinished Hassan Tower and its forest of broken columns date from then — and the French made it the administrative capital in 1912, which it remains today as the seat of the king and government. So Rabat is at once medieval, colonial, and contemporary. My standard advice: if you can, see Fes and Marrakech for the soul of the country, and add Meknes-and-Volubilis and Rabat to complete the imperial arc — together they are the spine of Moroccan history made walkable.