What is a minaret and why do Moroccan mosques have them?

A minaret is the tower you see rising beside every Moroccan mosque, and it serves one simple purpose: it is the high point from which the call to prayer carries out over the town. What makes Moroccan minarets so recognisable is their shape — square-sided, in the Andalusian and North African tradition, rather than the slender round towers you find further east. Once you have noticed this, you will spot it everywhere.

For travellers, minarets are wonderful navigation aids and orientation points. Lost in the tangle of a medina, I tell guests to look up: the tallest minaret is usually the main mosque, and the main mosque is usually near the heart of things. The Koutoubia in Marrakech and the Hassan II minaret in Casablanca double as landmarks you can steer your whole day around.

A respectful note worth knowing: in Morocco, working mosques are generally not open to non-Muslim visitors, so you admire the minaret and the courtyard from outside rather than entering. There are exceptions — the vast Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca offers guided tours to everyone, and it is genuinely spectacular, so I almost always build it into a Casablanca itinerary.

The tilework, brickwork and carved plaster on a fine minaret are an architecture lesson in themselves, telling you the era and the dynasty that built it. Standing at the foot of the Koutoubia as the light turns gold and the muezzin's call begins is a moment guests describe to me long after they've gone home — proof that a tower can hold an entire memory of a country.