Semlalia is the transitional district between the Medina walls and the French-built new town of Gueliz — a low-key neighbourhood of residential apartments, government buildings, and the Arset Moulay Abdeslam garden that Marrakshis call the Cyber Park. Less architecturally coherent than either the historic Medina or the art deco streets of Gueliz, Semlalia is the city's functional middle ground: hotels at more moderate prices, local restaurants, and a pace that is neither the tourist intensity of the old city nor the European calm of the new.
The Arset Moulay Abdeslam itself — renamed the Cyber Park when it was refurbished with free Wi-Fi in the 2000s — is a pleasant green space with old olive trees, palm paths, and shaded benches popular with students and families. The garden functions as a genuine public park in a city that has relatively few of them, and its proximity to both the medina and Gueliz makes it a natural meeting and resting point. The area around it has several good local cafes and the kind of unpretentious neighbourhood restaurants that serve Marrakshis rather than tourists.