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Meknes

Meknes (, ) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th century by the Almoravids as a military settlement, Meknes became the capital of Morocco during the reign of Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (1672–1727), son of the founder of the Alaouite dynasty. Sultan Ismail created a massive imperial palace complex and endowed the city with extensive fortifications and monumental gates. The city recorded a population of 551,503 in the 2024 Moroccan census. It is the seat of Meknès Prefecture a

OverviewAI-generated

Meknes is a city and big city in Morocco, located in the Fès-Meknès region. It serves as the capital of both the Fès Meknès region and the Meknès Prefecture. The city is part of the Imperial cities of Morocco and is a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities. Its official name is Meknès, and it is also known by the native labels مكناس and ⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ.

The population of Meknes is reported as 601,000, with 154,528 households. The city covers an area of 370 square kilometers and sits at an elevation of 535 meters above sea level. Its postal code is 50000. Meknes is twinned with the administrative bodies of Almaty, Nîmes, Tulkarm, and Santarém. It owns the Stade d'Honneur.

Synthesized by Vinony from 50 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Weather now

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7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality: Meknès ⴰⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ مكناس
Region: Fès-Meknès ⴼⴰⵙ-ⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ فاس-مكناس
Country: Maroc ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ المغرب
Population: 568,295
Timezone: Africa/Casablanca

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

54US AQIModerate

PM2.5: 6.4 µg/m³
PM10: 13.7 µg/m³

As of 2026-08-11 01:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

Settlement.official_name: Meknes
Settlement.settlement_type: City
Settlement.image_caption: Clockwise from top: Place el-Hedim and Bab Mansour, Sahrij es-Swani, Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, Bou Inania Madrasa, Bab el-Khemis
Settlement.image_seal: Coat of arms of Meknes.png
Settlement.pushpin_map: Morocco#Africa
Settlement.pushpin_label_position: left
Settlement.pushpin_relief: yes
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location in Morocco
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_name: Morocco
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Region
Settlement.subdivision_name1: Fès-Meknès
Settlement.subdivision_type2: Prefecture
Settlement.subdivision_name2: Meknes
Settlement.leader_title: Mayor
Settlement.leader_name: Abdellah Bouanou
Settlement.leader_title1: Prefect
Settlement.leader_name1: Abdelghani Sebbar

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

Is Fez driving you nuts? Nearby Meknes is relatively ignored by most tourists. It's also free of the usual hassles (touts, faux guides, etc.) that plague the other tourist centers. The prices in Meknes are among the most reasonable.

Get around

Hamrya is a new town with all entertainment facilities. You can find all what you need there, but there is no monuments or things to see except if you like to chat with people. Medina is the other side is the ancient Meknes and it contains all the monuments of this wonderful city.

See

thumbnail|Bab Mansour in the [[world heritage listed old town]]

Buy

Meknes is not a shopper's paradise, but it is certainly cheaper than nearby Fez. The medina is chock full of traditional Moroccan clothing and rugs, as well as the popular Moroccan shoe, bilgha.. It is also known for its metallic articles; the local artisanal speciality. The best way to enter the medina is at the back of Place Hedim, next to Dar Jamai. Herein you can find many shops catering to tourists. If you sojourn a bit deeper into the medina, you'll find plenty of unique shops selling jewellery, household goods and other treasures.

Be sure to bargain! Don't accept the shopkeeper's first offer: not only does it ruin it for tourists who come after you, but it also goes against Moroccan custom. The easiest way to bargain, particularly without knowledge of French or Arabic, is to offer half of the given price (or 75% for expensive or large-scale items). From there, the shopkeeper will go down a bit; you are expected to raise your price slowly until you come to an agreement.

If you can't agree on a price, try walking out of the shop as this will generally lower the price significantly. And try not to be too stingy: the value of an item is your appreciation of it, not its price.

Eat

The market near the main place in the medina (at the Bab El-Mansur) has incredible fresh products. Lots of different kinds of olives, sweets, pickles, etc.

thumb|Meknes market

In Ville Nouvelle there are dozens of restaurants and snack bars lining the main road, Rue Antsirape offering the staples of harira, tagine, cous cous and of course rotisserie chicken. A few restaurants on Rue Ghana, just off Rue Antsirabi, are popular with travellers and offer 40-dirham set menus.

Drink

Those looking to find a watering hole in Meknes have come to the right place, in Morocco, anyway. For some reason, Meknes seems to have more bars than people. Only a few are suitable for the average traveler, however.

Go next

thumbnail|Volubilis Chefchaouen – A beautiful blue and white city in the mountains of northeastern Morocco. Fes Rabat Volubilis – Roman ruins and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a short trip from Meknes. It is possible to go there by grand taxi via the town of Moulay Idriss, which is also worth a visit.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~36 min read