What is a Moroccan spice souk like, and what is sold there?

Walking into a Moroccan spice souk — like the famous Rahba Kedima area in Marrakech — is one of those moments that recalibrates your senses. The smell reaches you first: a warm, complex cloud of cumin, cinnamon, dried roses and something faintly medicinal. Then the colour hits — spices heaped into perfect, towering cones in every shade of ochre, brick, gold and rust, so vivid they look unreal. Then the sound, of merchants calling and of brass scoops scraping tins. I have led many first-timers in here and watched them simply stop and stare.

What is actually sold is far more than spices. Yes, there are the cones of cumin, paprika, ginger and turmeric, and the merchants who blend ras el hanout to order from twenty open jars. But there are also great sacks of dried mint and verbena for tea, dried rosebuds and orange peel, whole nuts and dried figs, dates and apricots, blocks of pressed olives and preserved lemons in brine. Tucked among them you will find perfume gums and resins, sticks of incense, lumps of natural musk, and traditional remedies — dried herbs, henna, black soap, kohl, and the famous "Berber pharmacy" stalls.

It is those herboriste apothecary stalls that fascinate me most. A good herboriste will sit you down, open jar after jar, and explain each one — nigella seeds for the sinuses, dried chameleon and odd remedies for the superstitious, argan and prickly-pear oils, ras el hanout, and the famous "Berber whisky" (their joke for mint tea). It is part shop, part theatre, part folk medicine. Some of it is genuine and excellent; some is showmanship for tourists, and a good guide helps you tell the difference.

My practical advice: go with your nose open and your guard gently up. Smell everything — merchants expect it and enjoy it. Buy spices freshly ground and in small amounts, watch them weighed, and don't be rushed into a hard sell on "miracle" remedies. Bargaining is part of the game and should be good-humoured. Done right, an hour in a spice souk teaches you more about Moroccan flavour than any cookbook, and you leave with a bag of scents that will transport you straight back home.