Fez. City of the endless mosque

The capital of Morocco for all together more than 400 years, home of the oldest university of the country and the leading cultural and religious centre. Fez is also the home of the oldest an largest medieval city in the world, a city that is almost unchanged through the modern ages and still most definately alive.
Fez was founded in 789 at a place between the mountains where the river was flushing by. History has provided the city with long periods of hardship, but Fez has never died. Today it has its own culture, pride, art and even cuisine. 
Fez. Bali

The Bali, or the oldest quarters of Fez, were to a large degree saved by the French general Lyautey. When the French got in control of Morocco around the time of World War I, he made all necessary arrangements to protect the medieval structures against the modern development.
The result is that Fez el Bali has taken good care of its old architectural structures and is also very much a living city, where most streets are too narrow for cars and donkeys and mules are in common use. Just like all through its history, Fez el Bali has a striking combination of poverty and developed culture.

Fez. Medieval ages

Nothing appears to have changed for centuries here in Fez. Donkeys and mules are still the preferred vehicle here between house walls that were erected long before the first European Christian came to visit.
While life forms could appear to be crude and primitive to visitors, it is all a well tested organic structure that has survived more than 1000 years of history.

Fez. Narrow shopping streets

There are few streets in old Fez that do not have many shops. The basic shop is the tiny grocery store, where basic commodities like sugar, tea, tins and Coca Cola can be bought. Often there will be shops selling goods needed by the local craftsmen. In slghtly wider streets, the more typical touristic shop is found. But even this will often have a good part of its money coming in from local customers..

Fez. Kairouyine mosque

It has its name from the the city Kairouane in Tunisia. Either there was a woman with the origin in Kairouane who established it, or it simply got its name from the quarter where immigrants of this town lived.

Kairouyine mosque has been the centre of Islamic learning in Morocco for more than 1000 years, but its real growth to importance came in the 10th and 12th centuries, when most of its structures were added to to the rather modest original structures.
As a mosque it is rather unusual. Its large quarters have since long grown together with the rest of Fez, and unless you enter it, it is therefore almost impossible to get a grip of its real size. Fortunately there are sometimes doors open that allows non-Muslims to look inside, so that they can at least make a guess.

But even if you cannot enter the mosque, at least many of the Islamic schools that lies around it are open to visitors. The most famous of these is the Attarin madrasa.

Fez. Kairouyine mosque – looking in

As long as the gates are open, there will be nobody to prevent you from looking in. And a good number of the gates are open, too. By carefully noticing any good possibility, you should have a good chance to see both the main courtyard as well as the prayer halls (as on this photo). Photographing appears to be well accepted, too, but you should try to avoid photographing individuals coming in or going out.

Fez. Attarin madrasa

Around the Kairouyine mosque, there are many madrasas — Islamic schools. The most famous of them is the Attarin, right up the main street.
It was built in the early 14th century, and excels in a beautiful bronze door and an elegant courtyard. The school has numerous examples of excellent detail work, in both marble, alabaster and cedarwood.

Fez. Bab Boujeloud

Being among the most famed gates of Morocco, the Bab Boueloud is suprisingly young. It was built as late as in 1913 and marked the completion of Fez el Bali and Fez el Jedid. The gate is strikingly beautiful, with the view from the outide as the most impressive. Seeing the minarets and the houses thorugh its opening marks an excellent introduction to Fez. As you enter the gate, note that the colour of the mosaics change: the outside blue reflects the colour of Fez, while the inside green is the colour of Islam.

It is not only the gate that is of recent age. Most of the surrounding houses alos belong to this century. But it is easy to be fooled, as it looks much older.

Fez. Skin funduq

While the tanning is not considered much of job by most Fassis, the people who bring in skins in to town, remove the hair and fur and bring it out to the tannners' quarter are still a step or two down on the ladder from the tanners.

As you walk into their funduq where the skins are sorted, no happy face will look up at you. And just like subdued convicts none of them will stop you from photographing. But still you get a clear feeling that your photo angles should be made so that no face is revealed: even people who don't object openly deserve to have their privacy protected.

Fez. Tanners' quarter

Suuq Dabbaghin, or the tanners' quarter, is situated no more than 50 metres away from the Kairouyine mosque. That is quite surprising, since tanning is considered to be an unclean activity and should therefore be as far away as possible from the main mosque. The reason for this proximity might just be that both were located here in times when Fez was no more than a small town.

The tanners' quarter has become one of Fez' main attractions. The reason comes from the platform where you can look down on the entire area, and see how the process is done, and enjoy watching the contrasts between the brownish honeycombs, the white houses and the intense colours of the dye.

Fez. Merenid tombs

There is not much left from the Merenid tombs anymore, here to the north of the city near the Bab el Guissa. But the view over the city, as well as the knowledge that the Merenid rulers were central in making Fez the cultural and religious capital of Morocco, will make the visit worthwhile.

Fez. The Mellah

The Mellah has its name from the Arabic word for salt, "melh", and is the Jewish quarter which now to a large degre is abandoned and taken over by rural Moroccan immigrants. The area had its own architecture which principally tooks its shape in bays and windows which often could be beautifully adorned, a qualkity that was quite striking compared to the plain white walls of the houses in which they were placed.

A shop keeper in the Mellah district who uses all available space for his display of goods.

The Mellah was not always such a nice place to live, as certin rulers of Fez at times imposed ghetto regulations. This served a both as protection and enclosure. While their rights inside the Mellah were good and safe, the Jews of Fez experienced hard limitations outside: they could not wear shoes or ride on horse or donkey.
The main attractions around the Mellah are the windos and some few synagoges. The Habanim synagogue is now being developed into a museum of Jewish lifestyles.

Fez. The Royal Palace

The Royal Place is closed to all visitors these days – which is sad because it is in little use and has a reputation of being among the mot elegant structures of Morocco. As it is today. there is little on offer except the views you get through the few open gates. Also there are the decorations around the gates, which give some indications on what is on display inside. 

Fez. The river of Fez

The river of Fez is the life source of this city. If the stories told of the city's foundation are true, Moulay Idriss I had his men sent out to search for the best location of a new central city.

Where Fez was to founded, the rivers were full and life appeared to have a good chance. Today, the river runs through the city with houses on both sides, and if you are not careful you could easily overlook the river. It is however visible from the bridge that crosses it all through Fez.

By: Tore Kjeilen. Copyright © 1996- 2004 LexicOrient, Oslo, Norway. Worldwide rights reserved. This article, with its images, its photos, its music, may not be reproduced or stored in any form, without the consent of the publishers.