Marrakech at golden hour: a year-round schedule
Sunrise and sunset times for Marrakech, month by month, plus the exact 30-minute window we'd book a shoot for any given week of the year.
Marrakech sits at 31.6°N, 7.9°W. The golden hour shifts by 90 minutes over the year. The 30-minute window we book a shoot for changes every 2-3 weeks. This is the schedule we use internally, the sunrise and sunset times, and the week-of-year offsets we apply to every booking confirmation we send.
The golden hour in Marrakech is short. The window is 28-34 minutes depending on the month. We book shoots to start 12 minutes before the official sunset, run for 30 minutes, and end 6 minutes after sunset. In summer (May-August), the window is closer to 28 minutes. In winter (November-February), it stretches to 34. The exact minute-by-minute schedule is in our internal booking template — we are sharing the version we use for client confirmations here.
Sunrise / sunset by month
January: 7:25 / 17:50. February: 7:05 / 18:20. March: 6:35 / 18:45. April: 6:00 / 19:10. May: 5:30 / 19:35. June: 5:15 / 19:55. July: 5:25 / 19:50. August: 5:45 / 19:25. September: 6:05 / 18:45. October: 6:25 / 18:05. November: 6:50 / 17:35. December: 7:15 / 17:30. The earliest sunset is in mid-December (17:30). The latest sunset is in mid-June (19:55). The 90-minute shift is why the booking schedule is a moving target.
- 01January: golden hour 17:20-17:50
- 02April: golden hour 18:40-19:10
- 03July: golden hour 19:25-19:55
- 04October: golden hour 17:35-18:05
- 05December: golden hour 17:00-17:30
The week-of-year offset
We apply a 2-week offset to the official sunset time. The civil twilight (sun 6° below horizon) lags the calendar sunset by 2-3 minutes per week through the year. The cumulative drift is 30-45 minutes by mid-summer. The offset we apply is: weeks 1-10 of the year, no offset. Weeks 11-22, -3 minutes. Weeks 23-34, -6 minutes. Weeks 35-48, -3 minutes. Weeks 49-52, no offset. The result is a 30-minute window that is reliable, week-of-year, regardless of when the shoot is booked.
“The civil twilight lags the calendar sunset. If you are not correcting for it, you are missing the light.”
What we book
We book the 30-minute window 8-12 weeks in advance. The winter sunset window (December-January) is the most competitive — we sold out the 2025 winter weekends in October 2024. The summer sunset window (June-August) is the most flexible — we can usually book 2-3 weeks out. The spring and autumn windows are the most reliable for weather — clear skies, mild temperatures, no fog. If you are booking a shoot in Marrakech, send us a date range 6-8 weeks out, and we will recommend the optimal 30-minute window for that week.
The golden hour is a moving target, and the moving target is exactly what makes the schedule useful. We have been shooting Marrakech for 8 years, and we are still refining the booking offsets. The version above is the 2025 build. We will publish a 2026 build in January. If you want a copy of the full year-round schedule in a single PDF, send us a note and we will email it over.
