Morocco. Fascinating Fez: City of 9,000 Streets
For anyone planning a first trip to North Africa, I recommend Morocco. A visit there offers opportunities to become immersed in food, architecture, and other cultural elements that blend native Amazigh (aka Berber) traditions with French culture. You will hear people speaking French as wells as Arabic and Moroccan Berber. Most visitors spend at least some time in major cities such as Tangiers, Casablanca, and Marrakesh. In my opinion, Morocco’s most mysterious and alluring city is Fez, famous for its chaotic network of more than 9,000 narrow streets and alleys. Connecting shops, mosques, restaurants, souks (marketplaces), foundouks (artisan shops), madrasas (Islamic schools), and private homes, the passageways are too narrow for motorized vehicles.
The oldest part of the city called Fes el Bali, was founded in 789 during the Idrisid Dynasty. Fes el Bali was expanded during the Marinid Dynasty and reached its zenith during the 12th and 13th centuries when it replaced Marrakesh as the kingdom’s capital. During the 14th century, the city grew to become a center for learning and commerce. Today, Fes el Bali is believed to be the largest car-free urban area in the world. Although some buildings have experienced deterioration, the Medina of Fez is among the best preserved traditional cities in the world. It has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.
We began our tour at Borji Nord, a fortress located on a hill northwest of the medina that offers outstanding panoramic views of the old city. The fort now serves as a military museum. Our next stop was a pottery factory located outside the walls of Fes el Bali. We were fortunate to tour the foundouk at a time when artisans were at work. Pottery produced in Fez is influenced by traditions handed down by the Phoenicians with clay glazed white and decorated with designs such as cross-hatching or repeated patterns of zig-zagging lines or triangles. Fez is famous for Bleu de Fés, a style of pottery finished with cobalt blue and copper colors.
We entered Fes el Bali through the Blue Gate, a blue mosaic-tiled arch. Looking back as we passed through, the arch’s reverse side is covered with green tiles that represent Islam. The streets and alleys of Fes el Bali are narrow and with no logic or order in their arrangement, it is easy to become lost. A doorway led us into a riad, a traditional Moroccan house that features an inner courtyard surrounded by three stories with inward-facing balconies. A commercial version called a funduq was used as an inn for traders, merchants, and travelers. Among the most iconic places in Fez are its tanneries. Chouara is the largest of three main tanneries in the city and surrounded on four sides by workshops and employee housing.
We approached Chouara Tannery from the upper floor of a leather goods store. Before looking over a balcony above the tannery, we were offered paper towels to shield our noses from the stench coming from vats below. Filled with colored liquids, tanning vats are arranged on several terraces. The process of transforming animal hides into leather goods has changed little since Medieval times. Cow, camel, goat, and sheep hides are first stripped of hair, degreased, and salted. Subsequently, the hides are soaked in large stone vats filled with a grotesque solution of pigeon feces, cow urine, and lime. The process is intended to soften the leather. The hides are then placed in vats of red, blue, or orange dye before being dried in the sun. From our vantage point we could see workers standing waist-deep in the vats. Only manual labor is used in the tanning process. When the drying process is complete the finished leather is sold to craftsmen who make coats, handbags, sandals, and other products.
Our journey continued through narrow, zigzagging streets. At times we were pursued by annoying and sometimes aggressive vendors who chided us about buying hats, bags, sandals, or other items. We developed a strategy for shaking off our followers by entering and then lingering in a store or shop until they gave up. Around noon we paused for a delicious meal of meat and vegetable tagine and zaalouk, a cooked salad served with spices. After lunch we visited Al-Qarawiyyin, a mosque that became the world’s first university in 859 AD. Nearby was an ornamented door leading to the tomb of Idriss II, Fez’s founder and ruler of Morocco from 807 to 828. On the northwestern side of the old city is a 12th century fortress called Kasbah An-Nouar that features two large eight-sided towers. Outside the old city walls is a newer part of the medina called Fez Jdid. Here we passed the Royal Palace (not open to the public) on our way to the Mellah (aka Jewish quarter). Established in 1438, the Mellah was named after a nearby river. Inside we found jewelers, silversmiths, and other Jewish craftsmen. Today, the word “mellah” is used for the Jewish quarter in any Moroccan city.
