Bab el-Khemis (Meknes)

Bab el-Khemis is one of the monumental gates of imperial Meknes, the city that the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail transformed into his grand capital in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Its name, the Thursday gate, refers to the weekly market once held nearby, and it ranks among the most richly decorated of the many gateways that pierce the city's long walls.

The gate is a showcase of Moroccan ornament. Its broad horseshoe arch is framed by bands of carved stone, moulded stucco and green-and-white zellij mosaic, with an inscription running across the facade praising the builder. Set within the tall earthen ramparts, it was designed to impress arriving travellers and merchants with the wealth and authority of the sultan's new capital.

It formed part of a vast imperial scheme. Moulay Ismail rebuilt Meknes on a monumental scale, with palaces, granaries, stables and gardens enclosed by many kilometres of walls, and its principal gates were among the most lavish expressions of that ambition. Bab el-Khemis, near the historic mellah and market quarter, gave onto one of the busier approaches to the city.

Today the gate is admired from the street as part of a walk around the imperial city, which is recognised for its outstanding concentration of Alaouite architecture. It combines naturally with the far larger and more famous Bab Mansour, the royal stables and granaries of Heri es-Souani, and the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail himself. There is no interior to enter; the pleasure is in studying the tilework and carving from outside. Come in the late-afternoon light, when the low sun warms the stone and deepens the colours of the mosaic, and take time to trace the calligraphic inscription that crowns one of the finest gateways of Morocco's great imperial capital.