Amanjena – Marrakesh, Morocco

Amanjena – Marrakesh, Morocco is a Marrakech hotel offering a zen-like atmosphere, exceptional service, romantic dining and seductive views of the Atlas mountains, located 12 kilometres south of Marrakech on the road to Ouarzazate.

Amanjena means ‘peaceful paradise’ and architect Ed Tuttle’s pared down Arabian fantasy certainly conjures an atmosphere of almost zen-like calm with its grand proportions, pleasing symmetry and luxurious finishes.

The pale, peach stone palace with its double-height lounges, library and fountain-focused internal patios reflect Marrakech’s Moorish and Arabian heritage in every graceful keyhole arch, chiselled pillar and ziggurat-style frieze. The subtle, simple colour palette of pink, honey and sage green ensures the rich decorative detailing – écaille de poisson zellige, intricate moucharabieh screens and plâtre ciselé walls – doesn’t overwhelm, making for surprisingly contemporary interiors where the focus remains firmly on the awesome architecture and seductive views of the Atlas mountains.

ACCOMMODATION

Set beneath stuc venitien domes with arched entrances, vaulted ceilings and garden courtyards, Amanjena’s five-star Pavilions and Maisons are cool, elegant dwellings with Berber carpets scattered over zellij-tiled floors. The sound of running water in fountains soothes while chaise longues and candle lanterns lend classic Moroccan ambience. Several offer private heated pools.

Al Hamra Maison

The two-bedroom Al Hamra Maison offers 1,130 square metres (12,163 square feet) of living space and provides a private butler service, a private heated pool and an extensive main pavilion. Features include Berber carpets, Zellij-tiled floors and soaring mirrors.

Maison

Ideal for larger parties, each two-bedroom Maison features seven-metre-high ceilings and offers 360 square metres (3,875 square feet) of living space.

Maison Jardin

Each Maison Jardin features seven-metre-high ceilings and offers 572 square metres (6,157 square feet) of living space, including a garden courtyard and a butler’s pantry.

Pavilions

Pavilions lie beneath their own graceful Venetian stucco domes and are an average size of 175 square metres (1,883 square feet). Each has access to a garden courtyard that overlooks the golf course or olive groves.

Pavilion Piscine

Offering a 25-square-metre (269-square-foot) heated swimming pool and a private garden, 220-square-metre (2,368-square-foot) Pavilion Piscine rooms feature Berber carpets, Zellij-tiled floors and soaring mirrors. Adjacent pool pavilions can be joined together via courtyard doors.

Pavilion Bassin

Pavilion Bassin rooms average 175 square metres (1,883 square feet) and are located next to the central irrigation pool known as the Bassin.

DINING

Both restaurants at the five-star Marrakech resort are decorated with traditional Moroccan elements, from the central, scalloped onyx fountain in the main Restaurant to the coral-hued tadelakt walls draped with Moroccan leather horse saddles in the poolside eatery. Local ingredients and culinary traditions inform the cuisine, complemented by a range of cocktails served at the airy bar, where smoke-tinted mirrors are joined by old Berber daggers and Arabic swords in scabbards of deer antler, camel bone and olive wood.

WELLNESS & SPA

Amanjena’s spa is home to two hammams complemented by showers, washrooms and a glassed-in whirlpool that opens onto a relaxation courtyard with a bubbling fountain.

EXPERIENCES

A varied landscape of rugged snow-capped mountains, parched desert dunes and winding coastline, Morocco has some of North Africa’s most diverse geography, all accessible from the five-star Amanjena resort. The ancient city of Marrakech is centred on its 12th-century medina, a red-walled former fortress crisscrossed by narrow lanes. Its attractions extend outward to the golf courses on the city’s outskirts and the surrounding villages, where little has changed over centuries.