What is the El Badi Palace in Marrakech, and is it worth visiting?

El Badi means 'the Incomparable,' and that's no idle boast — when Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur built it in the late 16th century, after a great military victory, it was one of the most opulent palaces in the world, dripping with Italian marble, gold, onyx, and treasures funded by ransom and the sugar trade. The catch, and what makes visiting it so evocative, is that it didn't last. About a century later, Sultan Moulay Ismail stripped it bare to build his new capital at Meknes, carting off everything of value. So what you visit today is a magnificent ruin — the bones of grandeur rather than grandeur itself.

Walking it is genuinely atmospheric. You enter into an enormous central courtyard, far bigger than people expect, with sunken orange gardens and long reflecting pools, ringed by huge bare ramparts of pisé (rammed earth) that glow gold in the sun. Storks nest on top of the walls — great untidy bundles of twigs with the birds clattering their bills — and they've become part of the place's character. You can wander underground passages and old dungeons, climb up onto the ramparts for sweeping views over the palace, the medina, and toward the Atlas, and in one pavilion you'll usually find the original carved cedar minbar (pulpit) from the Koutoubia Mosque, a genuine masterpiece, displayed indoors.

Is it worth it? For me, yes — but it depends on whether you enjoy ruins and imagining the past, because there's little ornate decoration left to admire; the appeal is scale, history, atmosphere, and the rooftop panorama. Travellers who love that respond strongly to El Badi; those who want intact, dazzling tilework and carving sometimes find it bare and prefer the Bahia Palace nearby. The two make a perfect contrast, in fact — El Badi the haunting ruin, the Bahia the preserved jewel — and I often suggest seeing both to feel the full sweep of Marrakech's royal history.

Practically, allow about an hour, wear sun protection because the courtyard is wide open with little shade, and climb the ramparts for the view and the stork's-eye perspective. The entry fee is modest. It's central in the medina, near the Bahia and the Saadian Tombs, so you can string them together easily. My verdict: a worthwhile, evocative stop, especially for history-minded travellers and photographers, and an excellent companion to the more decorative sites.