MarrakeshPrayer Times in Marrakesh, Skhirat-Témara

Marrakech was founded in 1062 CE by the Almoravid leader Yusuf ibn Tashfin and rapidly became a capital of the Almoravid and then Almohad empires that at their peak ruled from Senegal to the Pyrenees. The Koutoubia Mosque, completed under the Almohads around 1195 CE, with its 77-meter sandstone minaret, is the architectural sister of Seville's Giralda and the never-finished Hassan Tower of Rabat, and remains the central congregational mosque of the city. The Ben Youssef Madrasa, expanded in the sixteenth century under the Saadians, was for centuries among the largest madrasas in North Africa and a core institution of Maliki training. Marrakech is also the site of Moulay Ali al-Sharif's tomb and, more famously, the Seven Saints (Sab'atu Rijal) pilgrimage circuit established by Sultan Moulay Ismail in the seventeenth century, which remains an active devotional itinerary. Friday prayers at the Koutoubia and the city's mawlid season continue to give Marrakech a strong religious heartbeat.