Spotlight on Marrakech: Colour

Having just got back from Marrakech after a spontaneous trip with my best friend, I find myself walking the streets of London and feeling that something is missing. Glancing around, I came to the realisation that the world here is just a little less colourful. Across many of the cafes in the city, the beautiful stark contrast of lush greenery against the crumbling clay was a recurrent sight, as well as the intricately painted doors and wall details. Turning corners in Marrakech in the wonderfully complicated Medina, the dusty red clay walls would lead you into flashes of dazzling tagine pots and beautifully coloured rugs; there was never a moment of visual disappointment.

Red, Pink & Orange

The imperial city of Marrakech itself is built from a red clay from the Haouz plains situated west of the City. The clay is mixed with water and then spread onto the buildings, which in the Marrakech heat quickly dries to a sort of dusty salmon pink colour.

On a brief tour of the Ourika Vallery in the Atlas Mountains, our guide told us to watch out for colour variations in the different Berber villages,  as it is known that each settlement is built from the clay of the Mountain that it sits on. We passed red villlages, orange ones and more yellowy ones, each as beautiful as each other but all slightly different. It would be interesting to imagine if the colour of the city walls has a slight reflection on the characteristics of it's inhabitants, as it is known that colours trigger chemical responses in our brains which can affect is physically.

Blue & Majorelle Blue

Everywhere you walk in Marrakech, all around you there is a distinct bright shade of cobalt blue. From pots to doors to benches, 'Majorelle Blue' as it is now called was created by the French artist Jacques Majorelle in the 1930s. He was inspired by the beautiful blue tiles in Morroccan houses and decided to embelish his house and garden in his estate in Ville Nouvelle in the exotic colour. After his death in the 80s, Yves Saint Laurent restored the house and garden, opening up the gardens to the public, creating it into a beautiful attraction and exposing the trend to the rest of the city. The blue is now used in many fashionable Riads and courtyards all over the city and looks incredible juxtaposed against greenery.

The colour blue also features in other parts of Morocco with the picturesque town of Chefchaouen know as 'the blue city' in the North West of Morocco.  Chefchaouen is known for it's relaxing atmosphere, which many suggest is down to it's calming colour. The city was painted blue by the Jewish refugees who lived there in the 1930s and and a friend that we met in Marrakech explained to us that many Jewish families all over Morrocco also painted the doors in the houses blue as it is known to be the colour of the Divine. This was also evident when we stumbled across one of the old synagogues in the Medina and everything was painted a wonderful bright indigo.
However, the blue colour is also supposed to ward of summer mosquitos who misinterpret the colour as clear water!