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The first to appear on the square every morning are these sellers of freshly-squeezed orange juice. They work in brightly painted iron barrows fringing the square.

The heat makes the snakes unresponsive so the charmers work on tourists, cajoling them into draping the lethargic reptiles over their shoulders for a photograph.

There are several places to sit and watch the incessant entertainment of the square over coffee but the raffish air of the Café de France lends it an added appeal and is a favourite with tourists and locals alike.

These self-proclaimed “dentists” sit behind wooden trays filled with loose teeth ready to aid cash-poor locals with aching dentures.

These stand as testimony to the Moroccan belief in natural remedies. Compounds of ground roots, dried herbs and even desiccated animal parts are used for everything, from curing head colds to warding off the evil eye.

With cars banned from crossing Jemaa El Fna, access to many of the hotels in the surrounding alleys is provided by the ubiquitous porter (carroser), who carries your luggage on a wheeled barrow and transports it to your lodgings for a small tip.

Small monkeys dressed in bright tunics are brought to the square by their keepers to caper and dance for tossed coins.

Hop into one of the waiting calèches, or horse-drawn carriages, parked along the square’s west side. For a fee – you may need to bargain down from the driver’s inflated price – you can take a circuit of the city walls, or almost anywhere you care to go.

Known by the locals as gerrab, the water sellers roam the square in colourful costume and tassel-fringed hats, ringing copper bells to announce their arrival. The brass cups are meant exclusively for the Muslims while the white-metal cups are for the thirsty people from all other religions.

Throughout the day, impossibly wrinkled, elderly women squat beneath umbrellas with packs of Tarot cards to hold forth on the fortunes of the people who drop by for a reading.