page_title: Landmarks of Marrakesh
section_title: Jemaa el-Fnaa
hierarchical_section_title: Landmarks of Marrakesh / Plazas and squares / Jemaa el-Fnaa
caption_attribution_description: English: Panorama of the "Djemaa el Fna" in Marrakesh Deutsch: Panorama vom "Djemaa el Fna" in Marrakesch am frühen Abend Español: Panorama del "Djemaa el Fna" en Marrakech
context_page_description: Notable landmarks of city of Marrakesh, Morocco.
context_section_description: The Jemaa el-Fnaa or Djemaa el Fna, is one of the most famous squares in all of Africa and is the centre of city activity and trade. It has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985. The name roughly means "the assembly of trespassers" or malefactors. Jemaa el-Fnaa was renovated along with much of the Marrakech city, whose walls were extended by Abou Yacoub Youssef and particularly by Yacoub el Mansour in 1147-1158. The surrounding mosque, palace, hospital, parade ground and gardens around the edges of the marketplace were also overhauled, and the Kasbah was fortified. Subsequently, with the fortunes of the city, Jemaa el-Fnaa saw periods of decline and also renewal.
  Historically this square was used for public executions and decapitations by the rulers to maintain their power by frightening the people. The square attracted dwellers from the surrounding desert and mountains to trade here and stalls were set up on the square from early in its history. The square attracted tradesmen in foods, animal forage and domestic items, snake charmers ("wild, dark, frenzied men with long disheveled hair falling over their naked shoulders"), Berber women in long robes, camels and donkeys, dancing boys of the Chleuh Atlas tribe, and shrieking musicians with pipes, tambourines and African drums. Richard Hamilton said that Jemaa el-Fnaa once "reeked of Berber particularism, of backward-looking, ill-educated countrymen, rather than the reformist, pan-Arab internationalism and command economy that were the imagined future."
  Today the square attracts people from a diversity of social and ethnic backgrounds and tourists from all around the world. Snake charmers, acrobats, magicians, mystics, musicians, monkey trainers, herb sellers, story-tellers, dentists, pickpockets, and entertainers in medieval garb still populate the square. It has been described as a "world-famous square", "a metaphorical urban icon, a bridge between the past and the present, the place where (spectacularized) Moroccan tradition encounters modernity."
  Shortly before noon on April 28, 2011, a blast originating in a cafe in the square killed 17 people and injured another 25. Initial reports blamed an accidental gas explosion, but officials later blamed "criminals" and "terrorists".
caption: Panorama, looking across the Jemaa el-Fnaa
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