Mechouar

It can serve various functions such as a place of assembly or consultation (Arabic: michawara), an administrative area where the government's affairs are managed.

[4][5] An official public square or ceremonial space often existed in front of the main entrance or gate of early royal palaces in al-Andalus and North Africa, though the term meshwar was not necessarily used to designate them in historical sources.

[8][9] A similar square or open space also existed at the entrance of the palace-city of Madinat al-Zahra (10th century), at the end of the road that led to it from nearby Cordoba.

[2]: 269–272 Mechouars are later found as a standard feature of most royal palaces (usually known as the dar al-makhzen) in Morocco, many now dating from the later Alaouite period (17th-20th centuries).

They were used as reception areas, public squares for military parades, and places where the sultan or the qa'id (main judicial official of the city) would receive petitions.

Place Lalla Aouda, a former mechouar in Meknes , Morocco (part of the 17th–18th century Kasbah of Moulay Ismail )
Remains of a monumental portico at the old public entrance of Madinat al-Zahra (10th century), Cordoba , on the edge of a large plaza which may have been analogous to a mechouar [ 2 ]
The El Mechouar Palace in Tlemcen , Algeria
The remains of the Nasrid -era Mexuar at the Alhambra ( Granada , Spain )
Photograph from 1912 showing sultan's reception at the " New Mechouar " in front of Bab Dekkakin in Fez , Morocco