What is a borj / bab (tower / gate) in Morocco?

Two words you will read again and again on Moroccan maps and signs are bab and borj, and together they explain the whole defensive skin of a walled city. A bab is a gate: the monumental opening through the ramparts where a road passes into the medina. A borj — also written burj — is a tower or bastion: the fortified strongpoint built into or alongside the walls, often at corners or to guard a gate. Where the medina is the walled city, bab and borj are the architecture of those walls themselves.

The gates are where the artistry concentrated, because a bab was a statement as much as a defence. The grandest, like Bab Bou Jeloud in Fes with its blue-and-green tilework, or the immense Bab el-Mansour in Meknes, are masterpieces of carved stone, zellij and Arabic calligraphy — designed to impress arriving travellers and announce the power of the sultan within. Older gates were also cleverly defensive, with bent entrances that forced attackers to turn sharply, slowing any charge. Today these gates are the natural landmarks you navigate by; "meet me at Bab Doukkala" is how locals give directions.

A borj is more muscular and less ornate — its job was to hold weapons and watchmen. The Borj Nord and Borj Sud that overlook Fes are classic examples: sixteenth-century artillery bastions on the hills above the city, the northern one now an arms museum and, just as usefully for visitors, the best sunset viewpoint over the entire medina. Along many ramparts you will see square or round borjs at intervals, the rhythm of a defensive wall built to be watched and held. The word also drifted into meaning "tower" generally, which is why you will see it attached to lighthouses and even modern high-rises.

Knowing these two words is genuinely practical as well as historical. Almost every medina district, taxi rank and bus stop is named after the nearest bab, so the gates become your mental map of the city. And recognising a borj tells you where the old defensive high ground — and therefore the best panoramic views — usually lies. Beyond navigation, bab and borj let you read the ramparts as they were meant to be read: a system of gates to control who entered and towers to watch over them.