Medina of Meknes

Meknes in inland northern Morocco takes its name from the Miknasa, a Berber tribe that settled in the area around the 10th century. In the 11th century the Almoravids founded a military settlement just south of the Miknasa villages, the beginning of today's old medina. The Almohads destroyed the town after a long siege in the 12th century but rebuilt it early in the 13th. The Marinids founded a kasbah in 1276, and the Bou Inania Madrasa was built in 1336.

When the Alaouite Moulay Ismail became sultan in 1672 he chose Meknes as his capital. Throughout his 55-year reign he built a vast palace city south of the old town; the square where the rubble of demolished buildings was piled is still called el-Hedim, the rubble. High walls with great gates enclosed the city, and Bab Mansour, the ceremonial gate of the palace, was finished in 1732 by his son Moulay Abdallah.

After Ismail's death in 1727 Meknes lost its status as capital and was damaged in the 1755 earthquake. Once the French protectorate began in 1912, the French administration built a Ville Nouvelle on a plateau across the valley. The old city, where Islamic and 17th-century European styles blend, was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1996.