Bab ad-Debbagh or Bab Debbagh () is one of the main eastern gates of the

medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

(historic walled city) of

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Description

The gate is the northernmost of the two eastern gates of the medina. It dates back to around 1126 CE when the

Almoravid The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...

emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

Ali ibn Yusuf Ali ibn Yusuf (also known as "Ali Ben Youssef") () (c. 1084 – 28 January 1143) was the 5th Almoravid emir. He reigned from 1106 to 1143. Early life Ali ibn Yusuf was born in 1084–1085 (477 AH) in Ceuta. He was the son of Yusuf ibn Tashf ...

built the first walls of the city. Its name means "Gate of the Tanners" and refers to the nearby tanneries which have been present here since the Almoravid period. It has the most complicated layout of any gate in the city: its passage bends 5 times, in an almost S-like path, passing through two open-air courts and one elongated chamber with a

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

ceiling. A staircase in the southeastern corner of the structure grants access to the roof of the gate. Scholars believe that only the central part of the gate (the vaulted chamber) dates back to the original Almoravid gate and that the inner and outer courtyard sections were added later by the

Almohads The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). The Almohad ...

. The gate originally would have had a "simple" bent entrance (i.e. turning 90-degrees only once). File:Bab Debbagh plan.png, The floor plan of the gate today (light grey shaded areas indicate roofed areas) File:Bab Debbagh plan (hypothesized original).png, The hypothesized original floor plan of the gate File:Bab Debbagh exterior.jpg, The outer (eastern) entrance of the gate File:Bab debbagh DSCF1421.jpg, The first (eastern) inner courtyard of the gate, with one of the inner doorways File:Bab Debbagh interior.jpg, The bending passage inside the gate File:Bab debbagh DSCF1418.jpg, The inner (western) entrance of the gate

References

{{Marrakesh Almoravid architecture Gates of Marrakesh