Jardin Majorelle

About Jardin Majorelle

Jardin Majorelle is a walled garden in central Marrakech, laid out around a cobalt-blue villa that gives the place its distinctive look. The garden was created in the 1920s and 1930s by the French painter Jacques Majorelle, who spent years planting it and mixing the intense shade of blue, often called Majorelle Blue, that now covers the villa, planters, and fountains. Decades later the property was bought and restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge, which is a large part of why it became so well known internationally.

The appeal is mostly the garden itself. Shaded paths wind past rare cacti, tall bamboo, palms, and lily ponds, and the planting is dense enough that it stays cooler than the streets outside. Inside the grounds you'll also find the Berber Museum, which holds a collection of Moroccan textiles, jewelry, and craftwork drawn from the country's Amazigh cultures. It's a compact site rather than a sprawling park, so it doesn't take a full day, but it packs a lot of color and detail into a small footprint.

Plan on roughly an hour and a half to two hours to walk the paths, see the museum, and not feel rushed. The garden is popular and can get busy, especially in the middle of the day, so a skip-the-line ticket is worth having in high season. It sits a short taxi ride from the medina and the Jemaa el-Fnaa area, which makes it easy to combine with time in the old town. Note that the Yves Saint Laurent museum next door is a separate building with its own entry, so check what your ticket actually covers before you go.