Compared with Fes el-Bali or the Marrakech medina, Rabat's walled old town is unusually calm and rectilinear. It was effectively rebuilt in the 17th century by Andalusian refugees who had been expelled from Spain — they laid the street grid on something close to a city plan rather than a slowly-accreted medieval tangle, and the legacy is a medina that's easy to read on foot, less than a kilometre square, and capped by the Almohad-era ramparts that still mark its boundaries.

Rue des Consuls is the artery. Named for the foreign consuls who once lived along its length, the lane today is a working carpet-and-silver souk: Rbati cooperatives with looms on the upper floors, silver filigree ateliers, leather babouches, brass lanterns. The Mellah (former Jewish quarter) sits to the south, the Kasbah of the Udayas caps it at the north end, and the monumental Almohad gate of Bab el Had marks the western boundary with the Ville Nouvelle.

The medina is free to walk, no guide is required, and the pressure to buy is much gentler than in Fes or Marrakech — Rabat is a capital of government, not tourism, so shopkeepers serve locals and expats as much as travellers and prices stay more stable. Most shops open 9:30 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 19:00, with a midday Friday pause for prayer. Ninety minutes covers a meaningful walk-through; add an hour for tea and a carpet conversation.