Gardens of Marrakesh by Angelica Gray (2013-04-15)

I was hoping for more photos that were unique or inspiring. Almost every photo is something I’ve already seen on Pinterest or online.

Nice book. Good photography.

Beautiful.....wish they offered other cities.

This is a beautiful book and exactly what I was looking for. Gardens worthy of several looks and exploration. The photographs are stunning and the text is very descriptive. The only thing I am always left wishing for is a layout plan and how it all fits together.

Fabulous

Gardens of Marrakesh is a must have for anyone who likes Morocco and gardens. Great photographs and really comprehensive material.

Where do gardens come from? Every garden has many design sources, traditions and influences, and most have had many gardeners as well. But unless a garden is just a chaotic mish-mash of plants – and few are – it has a design and that design (or combination of designs) has a provenance. The design DNA that is coded into what we think of as Euro-American gardens has many points of origin, but probably none is more important than the inheritance received from Persian and later Islamic garden traditions. In the same way that the intellectual patrimony of the Hellenic and Roman cultures was saved and curated by the great libraries of Islam, the horticultural patrimony of the West was passed on to us from the great garden traditions of the Persian and Islamic cultures too. In both cases, the inheritance was received by the Roman Catholic Church as really the only cultural custodian of the West, and it proliferated outward from there as first the Renaissance and later the Enlightenment washed over an awakening Europe.Today, it is hard to think of a place where the gorgeous design influence of the Islamic garden can be better seen than in Marrakesh. And now comes this lively and beautiful book by Angelica Gray (with lovely photography by the Italian photographer Alessio Mei) to open to us mere mortals the gates of twenty fantastic Marrakesh gardens. Why is Marrakesh one of the world’s great garden cities? Well, you can start with nearly a millennium of intense and devoted gardening, a culture that reveres and delights in the garden, and a felicitous combination of topography, elevation, sunlight and water from the nearby Atlas Mountains that tower over Marrakesh in their brilliant red majesty. The red mountains, the red earth, the brilliant greens and the wild colors of Marrakesh all combine to overwhelm the senses. I love this city – it reminds me strongly of the redrock country I was raised in at the western foot of the Rocky Mountains and for me it always feels intensely foreign and very familiar at the same time. The mountains and the red earth are familiar, and so are the orchards and the irrigation, but the palm trees and olive groves and much else besides are very unfamiliar.The gardens are presented in three groups: the Medina, the historic city center; the New Town radiating out from the Medina; and the Palmery, the great green crescent of palm trees and gardens in the northeast part of the city. The garden tour begins with a garden nearly 900 years old, the so-called “Islamic Versailles” and ends with a lovely new garden made for a country home-style hotel. In between are many others, including the fantastic Mamounia Hotel and of course the famous Yves St. Laurent garden of La Majorelle. You can readily perceive the influence of this garden tradition on first Moorish Spain and then later the Italian Renaissance, and then later still the French Renaissance, finally England and the rest of Europe. If you want to see where your garden came from, go to Marrakesh. Failing that, read this wonderful book and you will know.

I have not been to Marrakesh as yet and, have no real knowledge of gardens. This book, which had been recommended to me, has opened my eyes on several levels. The photographs build strong perceptions layer after layer and the text carries the reader along on a quite magical carpet of real insight springing from sound research. There is more, several ideas - like the riad - are explained and then, a contemporary relevance is suggested and developed.This book should be the platform for more - and I do hope that Angelica will take her inspiration elsewhere. Clearly, gardens open us up to much more than species, colour and shapes. They reflect cultures in profound ways and this book should be the first of several to explore this theme. Marrakesh is on my list to visit - and this book promises to be well thumbed. Angelica Gray is a writer I will follow closely as a trusted guide in terms of ideas as well as place. Terrific.

A beautiful book from a general point of view but gardeners might have hoped for a bit more of a horticulturist's eye to accompany the designer's. My main disappointment is the grey colour used for the text, making it hard to read.

I love Marrakesh , and this beautiful book captures the essence of the gardens there .For me it is a wonderful souvenir of the gardens of the city , and an inspiration . If you have never been there , and love gardening it will inspire you to go , and if like me you have fond memories of the city it will cheer you on a grey British day !

This is a glorious book - inspiring photographs and interesting, well-written text.

If u go to Marrakesh... u need a book like this, a great help