“The garden is a philosophy made visible”. It is a place that speaks to our souls. That connects us to what is deep in us, to nature and to our own nature. Every single garden is a place of spirituality. In addition to its cultural richness, Morocco is also the land of fauna and flora diversity, amongst which we find several hundred of stunning gardens, each one is more characteristic than the other. Read this article and discover a selection of 12 Morocco exotic gardens.
RABAT GARDENS
The French horticultural engineer, Mr.Marcel François, created the Exotic Gardens of Rabat in the early 1950s and he opened them to the public ten years later. Mr. Marcel presented the gardens in three zones: a reception zone, comprising a playground and picnic area; a horticultural production area; and finally, by far the most impressive, the gardens area, a garden-nature, a garden-culture and an educational garden with a vivarium, an aquarium and a menagerie.
Visitors hail these Exotic Gardens for their beauty and their diversity, beyond their plantations and their varied paths, surprised by the creativity and plasticity of the compositions, the meticulous perfection and the spirit of rigor of their layouts, the realism of the atmospheres evoked where nothing was left to chance (landscapes, biotope, climate…) with infinite possibilities of interpretation. As such, if the Gardens-natures reconstituted the forests of distant countries or regions (such as the Congo, the Antilles, Peru, China, Japan or Polynesia, etc.), the Gardens-cultures for their part translated the knowledge men. No wonder this garden is one of Morocco exotic gardens!
Another Morocco exotic garden is the Botanical Testing Garden in Rabat. It is a seventeen-hectare botanical garden located in the Agdal district of Rabat, centered on Avenue de la Victoire, with an upstream part overlooking Oqba Street and the national library of Rabat, and another part downstream bounded by Avenue Hassan II and which houses some laboratories of the National Institute of Agronomic Research of Morocco. Created in 1914, it is one of the oldest testing and acclimatization gardens in all Africa.
The garden has more than 250 varieties of fruit and ornamental trees, from different regions of the world. It’s the French administrator General Lyautey that had originally initiated the botanical testing garden of Rabat at the start of the French Protectorate in Morocco. He called on the landscape architect Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier who drew the plans. Nowadays, the garden is one of the most visited gardens of Rabat and Morocco.
In Rabat, there are many gardens – such as the Exotic Gardens of Bouknadel for example and some of them are part of Morocco exotic gardens. But none is as big as the Nouzhat Hassan Garden. Discover this large green space. Nouzhat Hassan garden has welcomed for generations, since its creation in 1924, people, from the Medina and the new town, in search of freshness. This 11-hectare park, designed by Marcel Zaborsky, landscape architect from the School of Horticulture of Versailles, constitutes a buffer zone between the modern districts of the new town and the traditional habitat of the medina, on the other side of Hassan II Avenue.
Located in the city center, this garden is very relaxing: when the sun is at its zenith, you come alone or with your family to walk in the shade, lie down on the lawns, play pétanque with friends, have Moroccan mint tea at the Café. The garden administration has recently replaced the famous benches with their characteristic and deliciously retro shapes from the 1930s, but you can still sneak under the famous tunnel formed by the dragon trees of the canaries. And take a tour of Nouzhat Hassan Park to count the many varieties of Ficus that decorate this space: impressive for lovers of exotic trees!
Being the capital of Morocco, Rabat is a modern and bustling city. But, like all Moroccan cities, it has corners of greenery, dedicated to moments of rest. The Garden of Oudayas is one of these peaceful places, The Andalusian garden of Rabat that we consider as part of Morocco exotic gardens. Developed in the 1920s by the architect Maurice Tranchant de Lunel, the Jardin des Oudayas is the typical example of a riad garden. Protected by ramparts, this garden consists of four flowerbeds lined with olive trees, orange trees, tamarisks, roses, laurels, banana trees, daturas, and lemon trees. Particularly well maintained, this garden is very popular with locals who come to chat in the shade of the trees.
FEZ GARDENS
Jnan Sbil Garden also known as the Boujeloud Gardens, is a public garden in Fez which is located between Fes El-Jdid and Fes El-Bali, the two sections of the old medina of Fez. According to scholars, it’s the Sultan Moulay Hassan I who reigned from 1873 to 1894) who had built the garden in the 19th century. The sultan was responsible for the construction of the city walls connecting Fez to El Gidid to Fes El-Bali for the first time. (Although regional tourist authorities claim the gardens date back to the early 18th century, during the reign of Moulay Abdullah).
The gardens are located in corridors between these walls, The Sultan also built new summer residences there, such as the nearby Dar Al Beida (“White House” or “White House”). Originally the founder of the garden reserved the entrance only for the royal elite so he connected it to the palace by underground passages. The garden has fully opened to the public in 1917 during the French protectorate.
After a period of neglect and at the initiative of King Mohamed VI, authorities have recently renovated the garden (between 2006 and 2010) and reopened it to the public in 2011. The gardens occupy approximately 7.5 hectares. Today, they are one of the few rare urban green spaces in the Old Town and are a popular place to relax, especially at dusk. They have several decorative and colorful fountains and have over 3000 plant species that we can find in the its subsections labelled the “Andalusian Garden”, the “Mexican Garden”, and the “Bamboo Garden”.The gardens open regularly during the day, but close usually on Mondays.
The garden is one of the venues for the annual World Religious Music Festival.
MARRAKECH GARDENS
Majorelle Garden is a tourist botanical garden of almost 1 hectare with about 300 species of plants in an Art Deco villa with the Maisons des Illustres label since 2011, and a museum about the history of the Berbers, in Marrakech in Morocco. The garden is named after its founder, the French painter Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962), who created it in 1931 and was inspired by oases, Islamic gardens and Spanish-Spanish-Moorish gardens. Purchased by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 1980, it currently belongs to the Jardin Majorelle Foundation which also includes the Yves Saint Laurent museum.
In 2022 – according to a list of the English-language site HouseFresh which has aggregated the opinions of tens of thousands of tourists, the Majorelle Garden is designated the second most beautiful garden in the world, behind the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore and ahead of the Luxembourg Garden in Paris. Come visit this garden which is really one of Morocco exotic gardens if not the most exotic one.
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Menara Garden is a historical public garden and orchard in Marrakech. The Almohad Caliphate ruler Abd El Moumen created this garden in the 12th century ( around 1157). It’s located at the side of the Agdal Gardens and the historical walled metropolis of Marrakech. The gardens had been listed as UNESCO international historical site in 1985.
The gardens are laid out around a central water basin and reservoir, subsequent to which is a pleasure pavilion courting in its contemporary form from the nineteenth century. The reservoir and its pavilion, often framed in images in opposition to the history of the high Atlas Mountains to the south, are taken into consideration one of the iconic perspectives and symbols of Marrakesh.
Like the other royal Moroccan gardens, Menara gardens were designed for a primarily productive agricultural purpose, with its recreational purpose coming second. While there have not been many complete archeological investigations of those gardens, historic texts provide some data about what was planted right here and in other gardens like the Agdal. Throughout their history they had been planted similar kinds of trees and crops, generally fruit and olive trees. Today the orchard still is composed typically of olive trees and to a lesser quantity fruit bushes and cypress trees.
Arsat Moulay Abdesslam is a garden with a very rich history. Nowadays, the garden is a place of freshness and relaxation in Marrakech. Today, the garden is an educational and cultural space fully connected by broadband networks and interactive terminals. The park is at the coronary heart of the ocher town, Marrakech. It is a quiet place with rich and varied local and Mediterranean vegetation, century-old trees and shady paths. With more than 300 years of existence, the park offers a detour to a former princely garden, dating from the 18th century, where one can walk the same paths taken by the contemporaries of the founding Prince of Arsat, Moulay Abdesslam, and appreciate Moroccan garden art during the reign of Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah (1710 – 1790).
International artist André Heller’s opulent, two-hectare botanical testing garden is a mystical vicinity of sensuality. The garden is the perfect place for people of all ages who need to revel in the unforgettable. Walk along shady paths, among treasured bushes and shrubs, miracles of vegetation and fragrances, pavilions and sculptures. Unforgettable moments in the glory of African nature with an intoxicating view of the regularly snow-capped Atlas Mountains with the 4,167 meter high Jbel Toubkal.
The creator of this stunning garden, André Heller was born in Vienna in 1947. He’s among many of the international’s maximum influential and a success multi-media artists. His achievements encompass garden art work, chambers of wonder, prose courses and processions including a revival of circus and vaudeville, promoting tens of millions of information as a chansonnier of his personal songs, excellent flying and swimming sculptures, the avant-garde amusement park Luna , films, hearth spectacles, and labyrinths in addition to stage performs and shows that have entertained audiences from Broadway to the Vienna Burg theater, from India to China, and from South the usa to Africa.
our Marrakech and its Hinterlands Tour includes a visit to Anima Garden, click here to book it!
Le Paradis du Safran, on the road to Ourika in Marrakech, is an organic saffron farm. It is the friendly Swiss woman, Christine Ferrari, in love of Morocco who is in charge of running the garden. Here you can learn everything about saffron and medicinal and aromatic plants. Gardens for a walk full of flavors, commented by the hostess. This garden is an ideal sport for persons craving natural beauty, quietude and wise passivity!
This beautiful botanical garden specializes in cacti. He cultivates and sells all kinds of cacti, all on 7 hectares. The garden is so incredible that the owners have decided to open it up to people wishing to visit it. It’s the perfect place to take totally Instagrammable photos. Mr. Hans Thiemann, a cacti lover, created this garden after discovering this ideal localtion at the foot of the Jbilet. The place enjoy a superb view of the palm grove and the Atlas Mountains. It’s lose to the city but still far enough to be in the countryside. Mr. Thiemann thought having found the ideal corner to indulge in his passion for “Cacti”. Being agricultural engineer, he was already growing cactus in Germany, in Bremen. It was, obviously, in greenhouses, given the climate, but he was already a specialist and a lover of these plants.
The Secret Garden, one of Morocco exotic gardens. It has recently opened to the public for the first time in its history. The origins of the garden date back to the era of the Saadian dynasty. Rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century by an influential caïd from the Atlas. The Secret Garden was the home of some of the highest political figures in Morocco and Marrakech.
The Secret Garden is part of the great tradition of Arabo-Andalusian and Moroccan palaces. Thanks to the recent restoration of the garden, visitors can now fully appreciate it. Visitors can thus discover the garden and all the buildings which compose it. These buildings constitute so many exceptional testimonies of Islamic art and architecture.
The origins of the Secret Garden date back to the second half of the 16th century. It’s when the Saadian sultan Moulay Abdellah undertook the urbanization of what is today the Mouassine district. However, like many of the most representative buildings of Marrakech, and after the decline of the Saadian dynasty by the end of the 17th century, the taking over dynasty destroyed the palace which stood on the grounds of the Secret Garden. Around the middle of the 19th century, the caïd Al Hajj Abdellah Oubihi came into possession of the land on which he built a new palace.
Caïd Abdellah respected the original layout of the Saadian period complex. Marrakech knew a great development during this period, which favored the realization of gardens and rich residences.
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