La Mamounia Marrakech: A legend

La Mamounia, Marrakech: Few hotels have inspired more glamorous and romantic stories than the grande dame of Marrakech, La Mamounia. The hotel has hosted politicians and celebrities since it opened in the 1920s. In 1943, Winston Churchill asked Franklin D Roosevelt to join him on one of his many visits, describing the hotel as 'the loveliest place on earth'. Alfred Hitchcock used it as the backdrop for his 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much; Hollywood stars including Marlene Dietrich and Charlie Chaplin soon followed.

Marrakech adds modern amenities

Marrakech: Tourists wandering through the ornately tiled rooms of the late-9th-century Bahia Palace, home to a sultan's vizier, his four wives, 24 concubines and countless offspring, can only imagine the domestic juggling act required to get through the day.

Not far from here, in a jewel-box-like palace of similar vintage, Driss Segueni ponders a more modern problem. Namely, how to provide for the upkeep of a palace bursting with intricate mosaic tile, sculpted plasterwork and areas like slaves and harem quarters that just don't figure into the typical 21st-century lifestyle.

Marrakech: Visit The Red City

They come out at night As the sun sets, Djemaa el-Fna transforms from bargain bedlam into one of the world's greatest open air restaurants. It's been recognised by Unesco as being part of mankind's cultural heritage  his dye is made from poppies," explained the smiling scarf-seller. "It's the colour of Marrakech."

From Marrakech In To the Sahara

THE EMFRY ROAD turns into a track that peters out into desert floor, with holes here and there - mice? snakes? - and even in February the sun is intense. The land stretches out in all directions, shimmering to an uncertain horizon. From out of the heat haze materialises a figure, indistinct as a mirage. The figure takes shape: a young woman, incongruous in jeans and T-shirt, walking out of nothing, two wolf-like creatures circling her.