Mystical, Magical Fes

Located to the northwest of the Atlas Mountains, Fes is surrounded by hills and the old city is centered around the Fes River (Wahdi Fes) which flows from west to east. Fes has been called the “Mecca of the West” and the “Athens of Africa” and it is considered the spiritual and cultural capital of Morocco.

Founded during the 8th century, Fes received it’s Arab character from the waves of immigrants from Tunisia in the 9th century. It picked up its Spanish influence from Spanish and Portugese immigrants around the same time.

During the 12th century, the city was one of the largest in the world, with an estimated population of 200,000. By 1200, Fes and Cairo had probably become the largest Muslim cities. Around the same time many of the principal monuments in the medina were built and the city established its reputation as an important intellectual center.

UNESCO has cited Fes’ University of al-Qarawiyyin as the oldest university or oldest continually operating higher learning institution in the world. It opened to students in 857–859 and subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Islamic Golden Age. This Age is known to be when the Islamic world created algebra, and furthered human knowledge of geometry, statistics, astronomy, and calculus. Some of the theories discovered and taught during this time were in place for more than 1000 years.

The first book printed on the African continent was printed in Fes. A copy of Sefer Abudarham was printed in Hebrew in 1516 by Samuel ben Isaac Nedivot and his son, who were Jewish refugees from Lisbon. The press was short-lived and only printed 15 copies, one of which is now preserved at the U.S. Library of Congress.

The marble stone below commemorates where a 12th-century Jewish philosopher, physician, and scholar named Moise Ben Maimon lived in the 1150s. A family still lives in his place 900 years later.

We walked by a hydrologic clock that dates from 1355. It is currently being restored but you can see a few of the hour measures.

The Medina of Fes is considered as one of the most extensive and best conserved historic towns in the Arab-Muslim world and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The unpaved urban space conserves the majority of its original purpose and appearance. It provides a glimpse into an ancient lifestyle that is long gone.

Like we did in Marrakech, we hired a guide for our trip into the medina. Given the size of the medina and the fact that we have only one full day to explore Fes it seemed wise.

We met our guide Abdul in the lobby of our hotel, the Riad Fes. Because our hotel is located in the medina as soon as we stepped outside and went around the corner there were things to see. We love visiting places that keep your eyes busy looking and Fes certainly does that. So much to see everywhere you look.

The medina in Fes felt more authentic than in Marrakech. The shops here cater not only to tourists but to the people that still live in the medina.

This woman is making tanjia which can be eaten alone or is mostly used in combination with a meat dish. Diners would pull a piece of the bread and then grab a piece of meat with it.

Cars and motorbikes are not allowed into the medina and so everyone is on foot and things are carried in by mule or pushcart.

The streets and alleys are much narrower than in Marrakech. This makes for a much more intense and personal experience. But at no time did the vendors hound you to buy something.

The entryways into the medina are called Babs, or Gates. We started the tour at the famous Bab Bou Jeloud or Blue Gate. It is blue on the external side as blue represents the color of Fes. The inside of the gate is green which represents the color of Islam.

Abdul took us to see the different souks inside the medina including the metalsmith souk where we saw a man making small objects using silver thread. He would cut out a shape, like a lion or bird or whatever, and then carefully hammer the silver thread into the metal piece. He was making some really beautiful things that he sold in his shop.

We also walked through the textiles souk where makers would make and dye fabrics all different colors using natural dyes.

It was extraordinary because there didn’t need to use gloves or any protection since the dyes were natural and not chemical.

Probably the most useful thing we learned from Abdul was about the street signs in Fes. In the medina there are over 9,000 different streets and only 2,000 of them actually take you somewhere. The rest are dead ends, and so if you don’t know you could be walking for quite some time into a dead end before you realize that you have to turn around and backtrack.

There is a sneaky way to know when a street is a through street and when it’s a dead end. Here is a picture of a street sign for Derb Lmiter (in three languages: Arabic, Berber, and French). Derb is the Arabic word for “street”. Because the sign is square you will know that it will take you to another street.

But if you see a hexagon sign, like the one below for Derb Ben Aâzahoum, then you know it is a dead end and there is no need to go further.

The medina is no doubt big but it also is quite hilly. The oldest part of the medina is the lowest near where the first part of the medina was established in the 10th century.

As it grew over time it had to spread higher and higher up the hills up to the most recent additions built in the 19th century. So in a matter of minutes you can walk through 900 years of history as you descend into the medina.

Something Fes is very famous for are the leather tanneries. There used to be over 400 in Fes and now there are just three. We went to the largest and best known in Fes.

The smell is pretty bad. You are able to overlook the tannery by entering through a leather shop that has a great view. The shop owner provides sprigs of mint for you to hold up to your nose to cover the smell. We used our trusty Vicks trick instead.

Difficult to believe that people can do this work everyday.

This has been a really long post but honestly this is such a fascinating place that it could be longer! It’s surely what you imagine when you think of Morocco, and if you plan on visiting here then Fes should definitely be on your itinerary.