El Badi Palace (Marrakech)

 palace, museum

El Badi Palace (Arabic: قصر البديع‎ - meaning the incomparable palace) is located in Marrakech, Morocco, and it consists nowadays of the remnants of a magnificent palace built by the Saadian king Ahmad al-Mansur in 1578.
The original building is thought to have consisted of 360 rooms, a courtyard of 135 m by 110 m and a pool of 90 m by 20 m, richly decorated with Italian marbles and large amounts of gold imported from Sudan. It also has a small, underground, tunnel-like jail with about four cells where the king kept his prisoners. Unfortunately, this fairy-like palace, which took approximately 25 years to construct, was torn apart by the Alaouite Sultan Mawlay Ismail who used the materials to decorate his own palace in Meknes. The design of the palace is influenced by the Alhambra in Granada.
In one of the refurbished pavilions, the Koutoubia minbar is now on exhibition.