The City of Seven Men

This is a guided journey through the streets of Marrakesh, where storytelling and sacred geography meet. You’ll follow the route of the city’s seven revered saints—an ancient pilgrimage known as the Ziara of the Seven Men—accompanied by a professional storyteller who brings each saint’s legacy to life at the very places they are honored. From hidden shrines to quiet alleys, you’ll uncover layers of history, faith, and folklore that rarely make it into guidebooks. The experience combines live storytelling with a walking tour to the zaouias (shrines), celebrating the seven men who gave the city its nickname: The City of the Seven Saints. At each site, you’ll pause to see and listen—encountering tales of healers, mystics, scholars, and rebels who shaped the spiritual identity of Marrakesh. These are performed stories, set in motion as you walk. Along the way, you’ll absorb the rhythm of the medina and the resonance of a city built on memory, belief, and spoken word.

This is a walking storytelling experience along the path of the Seven Saints of Marrakesh—an urban pilgrimage established in the 17th century. Each saint’s tomb became part of a symbolic route celebrating core values of Moroccan identity: healing, justice, solidarity, scholarship, and sacrifice. Though non-Muslims cannot enter the shrines, the route winds through the neighborhoods that grew around them, where stories are shared just outside. These aren’t facts recited at landmarks—they’re living narratives, performed by trained storytellers. The experience reveals hidden corners of Marrakesh and invites a deeper connection to its spiritual history. You will also pause for tea, snack and conversation at a local's home in the Medina - a rare privilege. This is also part of a larger revival: reclaiming Morocco’s oral tradition—hikayat—from the noise of modern life and bringing it back to the streets where it once thrived.

Your, Zouhair Khaznaoui, host is a masterful Moroccan storyteller, trained in the traditional art of hikayat—an oral heritage passed down for over a thousand years. With deep roots in Marrakesh’s cultural fabric, they are part of the new wave of storytellers working to preserve and adapt this endangered tradition for contemporary audiences. Their performances are not scripted tours, but living, improvised retellings shaped by place, moment, and audience. As you walk through the city’s sacred sites and hidden alleys, your host will share stories that bring Marrakesh’s Seven Saints to life, offering a rare and unforgettable encounter with Morocco’s spiritual and cultural legacy.

Comfortable shoes for walking. Modest clothing as you will be close to several religious shrines. A camera to capture the route and the passionate expressions of the storytellers in action. A bottle of water, especially in warm weather.