Ben Youssef Madrasa Map: Interactive Plan and What's Nearby
Two maps in one page: the madrasa from the inside, room by room, and the neighbourhood around its door.
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Our pick Madrasa ticket paid on site Offer 1
Ben Youssef Madrasa, Secret Garden and souks walking tour
A guide leads you from Jemaa el-Fna to the madrasa door, then through the plan below.
- 3.5 hrs
- Free cancellation
Live guide: Arabic, English, French
From €10 per person · Nov 2026
Check dates — Ben Youssef Madrasa, Secret Garden and souks walking tour, Viator (opens in a new tab)
Madrasa ticket paid on site Offer 2
Ben Youssef Madrasa, Secret Garden and souk walking tour
A certified guide for the madrasa, Le Jardin Secret and the souks, in groups of up to 15. Entries are not included.
- 3–4 hrs
- Small group
- Free cancellation
Live guide: Arabic, English
From €14 per person · Nov 2026
Check dates — Ben Youssef Madrasa, Secret Garden and souk walking tour, Viator (opens in a new tab)
Madrasa ticket paid on site Offer 3
Bahia Palace, Ben Youssef Madrasa, souks and medina tour
The classic half day: Koutoubia, Bahia Palace, the Mellah, the souks and the madrasa. Riad pickup only with the private option.
- 4 hrs
- Small group
- Free cancellation
Live guide: English, French
From €15 per person · Nov 2026
Check dates — Bahia Palace, Ben Youssef Madrasa, souks and medina tour, Viator (opens in a new tab)
Madrasa ticket paid on site Offer 4
Ben Youssef Madrasa 1-hour guided tour
The madrasa alone, explained by a licensed guide in one hour. The listing excludes admission: you pay the entry at the door.
- 1 hrs
- Skip the line
- Free cancellation
Live guide: English, Arabic
From €26 per person · Nov 2026
Check dates — Ben Youssef Madrasa 1-hour guided tour, Viator (opens in a new tab)
Madrasa ticket included Offer 5
Best of Marrakech: Bahia Palace and Ben Youssef Madrasa with tickets
Tickets for Bahia Palace and the madrasa included, groups of up to 12, bottled water. Meets at the Koutoubia.
- 3–4 hrs
- Small group
- Skip the line
- Free cancellation
Live guide: English, French
From €50 per person · Nov 2026
Check dates — Best of Marrakech: Bahia Palace and Ben Youssef Madrasa with tickets, Viator (opens in a new tab)Sorted by price, lowest first. Prices from the booking platform; the price at checkout is the one that counts.
The Ben Youssef Madrasa is laid out around one central courtyard: a corridor from the street, a vestibule with two stairways, the marble courtyard with its pool, the prayer hall at the far end and the student rooms on both long sides, on two floors. Outside, the Almoravid Koubba and the Marrakech Museum are a minute away, and Jemaa el-Fna is 1.1 km south on foot (official location page).
In short
- Address: Rue Assouel, Marrakech 40000. GPS: 31.6320, -7.9863.
- Inside: courtyard 21.90 × 16.50 m, prayer hall 16.40 × 8.17 m, 134 student rooms around 13 small courtyards: 54 on the ground floor and 80 upstairs.
- Next door: Ben Youssef Mosque, Almoravid Koubba, Marrakech Museum, Maison de la Photographie.
- Plan about 45 minutes to 1 hour; up to 1.5 hours if you explore every upstairs room and take photos inside, half a day with the neighbours.
Plan of the madrasa: tap a part
1. Street entrance and corridor
You enter from Rue Assouel and walk down a long, dim corridor. The ticket desk is just inside: 50 MAD for foreign adults.
2. Vestibule and stairs
A carved door, geometric patterns, a carved wooden ceiling and zellij walls. The two stairways to the upper floor start here: remember them.
3. Main courtyard and pool
21.90 × 16.50 m, paved in white marble, with a pool of about 3 × 7 m. Stand at the end opposite the prayer hall for the reflection.
4. East and west porticos
Covered galleries run along the long sides of the courtyard: zellij pillars below, carved stucco above, cedar eaves under green tiles.
5. Prayer hall and mihrab
16.40 × 8.17 m, three naves, with a five-sided mihrab whose arch is framed by four marble columns. The richest stucco in the building, and a Kufic inscription around the mihrab arch.
6. Andalusian basin
On display in the prayer hall: a marble basin carved in Córdoba’s Madinat al-Zahra between 1002 and 1007, with a Kufic inscription naming Abd al-Malik, son of the vizier al-Mansur, and carvings of birds and fish.
7. Student rooms and small courtyards
134 student rooms around 13 small courtyards: 54 on the ground floor and 80 upstairs. The rooms are tiny; some have a window onto the main courtyard.
8. Upper floor
80 of the 134 rooms are upstairs, above the student blocks, around carved wooden balconies. Most visitors miss it.
9. Ablutions room
In the north-east corner of the ground floor, 6.25 × 5.25 m, under a dome carved with muqarnas.
Schematic plan, not to scale, drawn from the official architecture page. Upper floor: same footprint as the student blocks.
How to walk through it
Follow the numbers. Enter through the corridor (1) and the vestibule (2), step into the courtyard (3) and walk along the porticos (4) to the prayer hall (5) and its basin (6). Then come back to the vestibule and take the stairs: the student rooms (7) and the upper floor (8) are where most visitors run out of time, or miss altogether. The full room-by-room guide is what to see inside.
Map of the neighbourhood: what is next to the madrasa
Main walking route from Jemaa el-Fna (simplified)
Ben Youssef Madrasa
Entrance on Rue Assouel. Open 9:00–19:00, every day; 50 MAD for foreign adults, at the door.
Read moreBen Youssef Mosque
80 m · from the madrasa, straight line
The mosque that gives the madrasa its name, with a green-tiled roof. Closed to non-Muslims, like most mosques in Morocco; a useful landmark.
Almoravid Koubba
100 m · from the madrasa, straight line
Built around 1125: the only surviving example of Almoravid architecture in Marrakech, an ablutions pavilion for the old Ben Youssef Mosque. Separate ticket.
Read moreMarrakech Museum
50 m · from the madrasa, straight line
Next door to the madrasa, in the Dar Mnebhi palace (early 20th century), a museum since 1997. Separate ticket.
Read moreMaison de la Photographie
180 m · from the madrasa, straight line
A photography gallery in a riad, a few minutes east of the madrasa, with old photos of Morocco and a roof terrace.
Le Jardin Secret
370 m · from the madrasa, straight line
A restored riad garden with an Islamic and an exotic garden and a tower over the rooftops. Often paired with the madrasa on tours.
Read moreDar el Bacha
580 m · from the madrasa, straight line
the palace of Pasha Thami El Glaoui (built 1910), opened as the Museum of Confluences in 2017. Damaged in the 2023 earthquake: check that it has reopened.
Read moreMouassine Mosque and fountain
400 m · from the madrasa, straight line
A 16th-century Saadian mosque and its public fountain, on the way between the souks and Le Jardin Secret. The fountain can be seen from the street.
Rahba Kedima (spice square)
350 m · from the madrasa, straight line
A small square of spice stalls and basket sellers on the route to the madrasa, with rooftop cafés around it.
Souk Semmarine
480 m · from the madrasa, straight line
The wide covered street that leads north from Jemaa el-Fna into the souks: the main route to the madrasa.
Jemaa el-Fna square
810 m · from the madrasa, straight line
The main square of the medina. The madrasa is 1.1 km away on foot (official distance), about 15–20 minutes through the souks.
Read moreKoutoubia Mosque
1.2 km · from the madrasa, straight line
The great minaret of Marrakech, beside Jemaa el-Fna. Many guided tours of the madrasa meet here.
Positions © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Streets omitted; not an official map.
A morning loop
Start at the madrasa at 9:00, then walk to the Almoravid Koubba and the Marrakech Museum, both a minute away. Continue to Le Jardin Secret through the souks, and finish back at Jemaa el-Fna via Rahba Kedima and Souk Semmarine. Each sight sells its own ticket. Details and opening tips are in what to see nearby.
Getting there
From Jemaa el-Fna, the main route follows the dotted line on the map: north into Souk Semmarine, past Rahba Kedima, to Place Ben Youssef. It takes 15 to 20 minutes. Step-by-step directions, taxis and the “it’s closed” trick are in how to get there.
Questions people ask
What is the layout of the Ben Youssef Madrasa?
A street corridor leads to a vestibule with two stairways, then to the central courtyard (21.90 × 16.50 m) with its pool. The prayer hall is at the far end; 134 student rooms around 13 small courtyards: 54 on the ground floor and 80 upstairs.
What is next to the Ben Youssef Madrasa?
The Ben Youssef Mosque, the Almoravid Koubba and the Marrakech Museum are a minute's walk away. Le Jardin Secret and Dar el Bacha are a short walk west.
Where exactly is the Ben Youssef Madrasa?
On Rue Assouel in the Ben Youssef neighbourhood of the medina, 1.1 km on foot north of Jemaa el-Fna. GPS: 31.6320, -7.9863.