We go inside what may just be Morocco’s most lavish stay yet…
When your travels lead you to Marrakech, Palais Namaskar is the place to write home about; an exotic oasis nestled between majestic mountains and alluring desert in a city bustling with kasbahs and bazaars.
The luxury hotel and spa is sublime; kind of like you’ve stepped into a mystic kingdom from a bygone era. The resplendent architecture is a striking mix of Moorish influences, with feng shui principles and Balinese gardens.
In contrast, the interior design in the 41 room types – deluxe rooms, spacious suites, luxury villas and three palaces (yes, three) fit for a king – is contemporary and minimalistic.
As though that’s not enough to sate your senses, there is a host of dining options to choose from too: fine French dining, casual poolside fare, intimate Thai cuisine and a rooftop bar under a dreamy Moroccan sky – all of which are under the watchful eye of Antoine Perray, former disciple of the great Alain Ducasse.
There’s a long list of activities available for guests – from exploring the majestic Sahara by camel, to getting lost in the narrow, evocative alleyways of the world’s largest Medina.
But even with such temptations on the doorstep, it will be an effort to tear yourself away from time spent simply lazing about your very own palace.
Order a drink from the butler, soak in the private heated pool, gaze out to all 2000-square-kilometres of private gardens and tick ‘Arabian Night Fantasy’ off your bucket list.
Ancient Egyptian history has been scattered across the globe for decades, admired, preserved, and studied, but it’s rarely seen where it actually belongs. The newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) brings it home.
From a viewing platform inside the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Great Pyramids of Giza rise from the desert, and for a moment, it feels like modern Egypt and ancient Egypt are shaking hands. The museum, grand in name and reality, has been a long time coming—since 1992, to be exact. Towering pharaohs, relics, and entire chapters of civilisation are on display here, all in full view of the pyramids. And because the GEM is the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to a single civilisation, it gets to tell Egypt’s story through its own voice, something many overseas institutions, understandably, haven’t quite managed.
Reshaping Giza
The GEM holds its own commanding position. (Image: Natasha Bazika)
You might expect any building beside the Great Pyramids of Giza to fade into the background, but the GEM doesn’t bow to its famous neighbours. Perfectly aligned on the same axis and vast enough to span 70 football fields, the museum is less of an addition to Giza and more of a marker of the shift from a gateway to a cultural district.
Inside, hieroglyphs carved from alabaster sweep across the walls and triangles appear everywhere, yet it’s a 3,200-year-old, 11-metre-tall, statue of Ramesses II who commands the room. His scale dictated the soaring atrium ceilings, which pour in natural light, unusual in museums but safe for the stone artefacts displayed.
Hieroglyphs line the walls of the main entrance. (Image: Natasha Bazika)
Unlike many museums, the GEM has really considered how visitors move through it. The six-storey grand staircase leads you chronologically through Egypt’s history, from the Predynastic era to the Coptic period, flanked by statues that grow in scale and complexity as you climb. Elevators and lifts run alongside, keeping the journey accessible to everyone.
At the top, a viewing wall frames the pyramids before you enter the main gallery to see artefacts rarely seen outside tombs, including the complete contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb, a highlight for many visitors.
Pharaohs, artefacts and everything in between
The GEM’s showpiece Ramesses II. (Image: Natasha Bazika)
The GEM holds around 100,000 artefacts across seven millennia, but the experience is entirely modern. Digital panels, QR navigation and clear bilingual signage make self-guided wandering easy, while short, glare-free labels in English, Arabic and braille are colour-coded to move you from broad themes to object-level detail.
That said, a guide adds context you don’t get from a panel. I was lucky to have Essam Al Ebd Aziz, an Egyptologist, on board a 12-day Uniworld Nile cruise, walk me through some of the museum’s standout pieces.
Top of the list is, of course, the Tutankhamun exhibit. Almost everything from his tomb, much of it never shown outside the Valley of the Kings, is here, from his golden funerary mask to delicate jewellery and ceremonial objects. But the GEM isn’t just about one boy king.
An 11-metre-tall Ramesses II statue guards the entrance. (Image: Natasha Bazika)
Essam points out the canopic chest of Hetepheres, mother of Khufu, where her organs were stored in alabaster. I loved the forty little marching soldier figurines from the tomb of Mesehti, all lined up and hanging on a wall. And then there’s the statue of Metri, a scribe, with piercing blue eyes carved from lapis lazuli. All these pieces, and thousands more, now sit under one roof. And for the first time, people can see Egypt’s history in one place, told in its own voice, without leaving the shadow of the pyramids. That alone changes everything.
Palais Namaskar: Best view in Marrakech - International Traveller Magazine
