Beni Mellal: A Gentle Guide to Morocco's City of Springs

Most travelers meet Beni Mellal through a bus window. It sits roughly halfway between Casablanca, Marrakesh and Fes, so coaches pause here, passengers stretch their legs, and the city slides away behind them toward somewhere more famous.

That is a small shame, because Beni Mellal is built around something rare in Morocco: water, in quantity, running downhill through gardens in the middle of a city. The spring of Aïn Asserdoun pours out at the foot of Jbel Tassemit and falls through terraces of shade trees, and above it a seventeenth-century kasbah keeps watch over the Tadla plain — a wide green patchwork of olive, orange and wheat.

Our angle here is simple, and it suits our readers well: come to Beni Mellal not to tick off monuments, but to spend two slow days doing what the town itself does — sitting near running water, drinking orange juice, and watching the mountains change color in the late afternoon.

A little history

Beni Mellal is young as Moroccan cities go, but the land beneath it is not. The Tadla plain has been farmed by Berber tribes since antiquity, and its position — at the foot of the Middle Atlas, on the old routes linking Fes and Marrakesh — made it a natural meeting point between mountain shepherds and valley farmers.

The town's founding date is usually given as 1688, when the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail built a fort on the hill above the spring. The reason was practical as much as military: whoever held Aïn Asserdoun held the water that made the plain fertile, and the fort also let the sultan's men watch the caravans crossing below.

The kasbah was restored in the nineteenth century under Moulay Slimane, and again in 1916 during the French Protectorate. The modern city grew around it in the twentieth century and is now the capital of the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region, with a population of roughly 210,000 and a large university. The result is a working Moroccan city — broad avenues, cafés, a busy market — rather than a tourist stage set. Many readers will find that refreshing.

The small fortress overlooking Beni Mellal, known locally as Kasbah Bel Kouch or Kasbah Aïn Asserdoun, first built in the 17th century.

What to see

Beni Mellal's sights are few and close together, which is exactly why it works as a restful stop.

Aïn Asserdoun and its gardens

The name is usually translated as "spring of the mule," after a local story about a thirsty animal that found the water first. Whatever its origin, the spring is the heart of the city: it emerges at the base of the mountain and is channeled through a public park of terraces, stone paths, flowerbeds, pomegranate and shade trees, with small cascades falling from level to level. Families come in the late afternoon; the air near the water is noticeably cooler than in the streets below. Allow an hour or two, more if you are happy to sit.

The kasbah on the hill

Directly above the park stands the little fortress — called Kasbah Bel Kouch, Kasbah Ras el Aïn or Borj Aïn, depending on who you ask. It is a modest building, not a grand palace, and the reason to go up is the view: the whole city at your feet, the olive and orange groves beyond, and the flat green plain running away to the north. The walk up from the park takes only about ten minutes but is steep; a taxi can drive you most of the way, which we recommend.

The city center and the market

Beni Mellal has no old walled medina to lose yourself in. What it has instead is an everyday Moroccan commercial center: a covered market and souk streets heavy with citrus, olives, dates, mint and spices, plus cafés where a glass of fresh orange juice costs very little. This is pleasant, flat, honest walking, and nobody will press you to buy a carpet.

Jbel Tassemit and the orchards

The mountain behind the city rises to 2,247 meters and draws serious walkers. Our readers do not need to climb it to enjoy it: a short drive out along the orchard roads, or simply a seat facing the slopes at sunset, gives you the same mountain in far greater comfort.

The public gardens of Aïn Asserdoun in Beni Mellal, laid out in terraces around the spring.

Water, shade and the slow afternoon

If you take one idea away from this story, make it this one. Beni Mellal sits at about 620 meters, on the edge of a plain that bakes in summer, and the local answer to heat has always been water and shade. Following that habit is both the most comfortable and the most authentic way to spend your time here.

A good day looks like this. Breakfast slowly. Go out in the cool of mid-morning — the market, a café, a short stroll. Rest through the middle of the day, when the sun is hard and the pavements glare. Then take a taxi up to the park around four or five o'clock, when the light softens and the whole city seems to arrive at once. Watch the water fall, let the children run past, walk as much or as little of the terraces as your knees agree to, and stay until the mountain turns gold.

There is no queue, no ticket desk drama, no guide hurrying you along. For travelers who have done the great circuit of Fes and Marrakesh and want a few days of quiet before going home, that is worth a great deal.

Water falling through the terraces at Aïn Asserdoun, Beni Mellal.

A day trip nearby

The real excursion from Beni Mellal is the lake at Bin el Ouidane, roughly 50 to 55 km away — about an hour each way by road, climbing gently into the foothills past the town of Afourer. The lake was created by a large dam and sits in a bowl of dry red hills, a startling sheet of blue after the farmland of the plain. There are viewpoints you can reach without walking far, and a few places to eat looking over the water. Hire a taxi for the half day and ask the driver to wait; there is no comfortable way to do this by public transport.

Two other options are worth knowing about, with an honest warning attached. The Ouzoud waterfalls, Morocco's most famous cascades, lie beyond Azilal — allow around two to two and a half hours each way, which makes for a long day, and be aware that seeing the falls properly involves a good many steps down and back up again. Closer and gentler is Kasba Tadla, about 30 km north-east, where an old fortified kasbah and a long multi-arched bridge stand above the Oum Er-Rbia river; it is a modest, atmospheric stop rather than a major sight, and easy to fit into a morning.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Stay near the center. Beni Mellal's hotels are concentrated around the main avenues, within flat, easy walking distance of cafés and restaurants. Everything else is better reached by taxi, so there is no advantage in staying out of town.
• Use petits taxis freely. They are plentiful, inexpensive and the single best comfort investment here. Agree the fare or ask for the meter before setting off, and keep small notes and coins.
• The park has steps. Aïn Asserdoun is laid out in terraces, so seeing all of it means stone paths and staircases. The lower levels near the main outflow are the most accessible, and you can enjoy the spring perfectly well without climbing to the top.
• Don't walk up to the kasbah in the heat. The climb is short but steep and shadeless. Take a taxi up, enjoy the view, and walk down if you feel like it.
• Respect the summer. July and August regularly pass 40°C here, with records approaching 46°C. If you must come then, keep to early mornings and evenings, carry water everywhere, and plan nothing at midday.
• Winter is cooler than you expect. At this altitude, with snow falling on the heights above, evenings can be genuinely cold and heating in modest hotels is not always generous. Bring a warm layer.
• This is not a tourist town. English is less widely spoken than in Marrakesh or Fes; French and Moroccan Arabic carry you much further. A hotel that can arrange a driver who speaks some English is worth seeking out.
• Allow a rest day. Many visitors arrive here after several long road days. Beni Mellal is an unusually good place to do nothing, and we would not feel guilty about it.

A shaded corner of the city garden in Beni Mellal.

What to eat

This is farm country, and the food reflects it. The Tadla plain and the slopes around it produce oranges and clementines with a real reputation in Morocco, along with olives, olive oil and figs. The simplest pleasures are the best: a glass of orange juice pressed in front of you, bread with good local oil, a bowl of olives.

For meals, expect the familiar Moroccan repertoire done well rather than invented dishes — tagines of lamb or chicken slow-cooked with vegetables, olives and preserved lemon; couscous, traditionally the Friday dish, served with seven vegetables and meat; and grilled meats at small, busy local places. Mechoui, slow-roasted lamb eaten with cumin and salt, appears at celebrations and at roadside grills in the region and is worth trying if you see it.

Finish as everyone does, with mint tea — poured sweet and hot, and offered more often than you can reasonably drink it. For something with it, look for kaab el ghazal, the almond pastries scented with orange-blossom water.

A practical note: restaurants here serve a local clientele, portions are generous, and the main meal of the day is lunch. Dinner tends to be later and lighter, so if you like to eat early, grills and cafés are your friends.

Getting there

A word on arriving: coach journeys in Morocco are comfortable but long, and the station is not always in the middle of town. Ask your hotel in advance how far it is and whether they can meet you — after four hours on the road, a waiting car is a kindness.

Our verdict

Beni Mellal will not be the photograph you frame when you get home. It has one great sight, one small fortress, and a market like a hundred other Moroccan markets. If you measure a trip in monuments, you can skip it, and plenty of people do.

But if you measure a trip in good afternoons, it earns its place. We would send a reader here for two nights, between the intensity of Marrakesh or Fes and the next long drive — a city where the walking is flat, the taxis are cheap, nobody is selling you anything, and there is cool running water in a public garden at the end of the day. For travelers over 60 who would rather sit well than see everything, that is a genuinely good destination.

Go in spring or autumn, stay in the center, take the taxi up the hill, and let the mountain do the work.

Aïn Asserdoun seen from above, with the city of Beni Mellal and the plain beyond.

“In Beni Mellal the whole city comes to sit beside the water, and the mountain waits politely for evening.”

Photo credits

• Ain Asserdoun in Beni Mellal with Fortress: Abdeaitali, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Monument Beni Mellal ville: Zoubida Ouamer, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• BeniMellal,AinAsserdoun: Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ain Asserdoune Waterfall: Abderrahman Ait Ali, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Beni Mellal-2-CTH: CTHOE, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ain Asserdoun in Beni Mellal from above: Abdeaitali, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons