Ksar Char-Bagh

Ksar Char-Bagh occupies three and a half hectares in the Palmeraie, the palm grove north of Marrakech, its architecture a studied interpretation of fourteenth-century Moorish palace design executed with materials and proportions that resist classification as pastiche. Four gardens fill the grounds: fig, olive and citrus trees contribute fragrance and shade, a kitchen garden produces for the table, and water channels cross the property in the pattern drawn from Andalusian garden design, the streams representing the rivers of paradise in the tradition the name invokes. Fifteen suites and one apartment compose the accommodation, the smallest suite a hundred square metres, each with private terrace, garden, or heated pool. A villa of approximately nine hundred and seventy square metres offers the most expansive option, with two private pools and the spatial logic of a residence rather than a hotel room. The main pool, thirty-four metres long, is flanked by palms and presided over by the hotel's crenellated facade, the scale of the whole composition producing the quality of drama that is rare even in a city accustomed to theatrical spaces. Inside, the atmosphere shifts to quieter registers: a cigar lounge, an English billiards room, a library bar, and a restaurant with a gold-leaf ceiling. The subterranean spa operates a red marble hammam and treatment rooms. Ksar Char-Bagh is a property where the architecture is the luxury, and at fifteen suites and one apartment, the architecture is never crowded.