The mosque of the booksellers

I love a name with a story behind it, and the Koutoubia has a good one. It means booksellers, because back in the twelfth century, a hundred book vendors used to trade in the streets right at its base. Imagine that: a market of manuscripts under the shadow of a minaret.

Then there's the bit I can't quite decide if I believe. The top of the tower was supposedly crowned with three golden spheres, though nobody's ever confirmed they were real gold, or just a good story told and retold in the souks. What I do know is true is that those spheres are still filled with mineral salt from the High Atlas Mountains, changed once a year during Ramadan, to keep them glinting.

I painted it at sunset, that hour when the whole thing turns the colour of the story itself. There's a poster and a postcard, both with a letter home if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakech · Travel Poster