What to See Inside the Ben Youssef Madrasa, Room by Room

Inside the Ben Youssef Madrasa you walk through an entrance vestibule, into a marble courtyard with a long pool, then a prayer hall with a carved mihrab and an Andalusian basin, and up to the student rooms: 134 student rooms around 13 small courtyards: 54 on the ground floor and 80 upstairs (official architecture page). The whole visit takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour; up to 1.5 hours if you explore every upstairs room and take photos.

In short

• Courtyard: 21.90 × 16.50 m, paved in white marble, with a pool of about 3 × 7 m.
• Prayer hall: 16.40 × 8.17 m, with a five-sided mihrab whose arch is framed by four marble columns.
• Decoration: carved cedar, sculpted stucco, zellij tilework, marble and calligraphy.
• Don’t skip the upper floor: that is where most rooms are.

1. 1 Street entrance and corridor
2. 2 Vestibule and stairs
3. 3 Main courtyard and pool
4. 4 East and west porticos
5. 5 Prayer hall and mihrab
6. 6 Andalusian basin
7. 7 Student rooms and small courtyards
8. 8 Upper floor
9. 9 Ablutions room

Schematic plan, not to scale, drawn from the official architecture page. Upper floor: same footprint as the student blocks.

1. The entrance vestibule

You enter from the street through a long, dim corridor, a deliberate contrast with the bright courtyard to come. The official description notes the vestibule’s richly carved door, geometric patterns, carved wooden ceiling and zellij walls. Look up: the ceilings here are some of the finest woodwork in the building.

The two stairways to the upper floor also start in this area. Remember them for later.

2. The main courtyard and its pool

The courtyard is the image everyone knows: 21.90 × 16.50 m, about one-fifth of the building, paved in white marble with a long rectangular pool in the middle. Two porticos run along the east and west sides, and a cedar canopy covered with green tiles shades the walls.

The four facades are layered from bottom to top:

• Zellij tilework at the base, in geometric stars. The official site notes the tiles are 3 cm, double the usual thickness.
• Carved stucco above, with calligraphy bands and arabesques.
• Cedar wood at the top: carved lintels and eaves under the green-tiled roof.

Stand at the pool’s end opposite the prayer hall for the classic reflection shot. It works best early, before the water is disturbed and the courtyard fills.

3. The prayer hall and mihrab

At the far end of the courtyard, through a carved cedar door, is the prayer hall: 16.40 × 8.17 m, divided into three naves. Its focal point is the mihrab, the niche that shows the direction of Mecca: a five-sided mihrab whose arch is framed by four marble columns. The stucco here is the richest in the madrasa, and a large Kufic inscription runs around the mihrab arch.

Above, look for the carved cedar ceiling and the muqarnas, the honeycomb-like carving inside the mihrab.

4. The Andalusian basin

The madrasa’s oldest object is older than the building by five centuries: 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. It is now displayed in the prayer hall. Look closely at the sides for the birds and fish (Wikipedia).

5. The student rooms and small courtyards

This is the part many visitors miss. The madrasa has 134 tiny rooms where students lived, grouped around 13 small courtyards: 54 on the ground floor and 80 upstairs. Climb the stairs from the vestibule and wander the narrow corridors. Each small courtyard has carved wooden balconies looking down into a well of light.

Step into a room or two: they are barely big enough for a bed mat and a few books, and some have a window onto the main courtyard. That view down onto the pool is one of the best in the building.

6. The details most people walk past

• The ablutions room in the north-east corner, with a domed muqarnas ceiling.
• The water system: rain from the roofs once filled the courtyard basin, and a conical maada in the vestibule distributed water.
• The bird in the balustrade: a small bird carved into one of the wooden balustrades. Finding it is a small game.
• The foundation inscription near the entrance, which records the Saadian completion in 972 AH (1564–1565).

The building’s story, from the Marinids to the 2022 reopening, is in our history guide. Practical next steps: tickets · opening hours · how to get there.