Due to a minor booking issue we were supposed to have been accommodated last night at the nearby Riad Myra which will be our hotel for this evening. As the Riad el Medina had no facilities for meals, we were required to move hotels before breakfast. This occurred effectively and we were ready to start our day’s sight-seeing in Fès by 09:30.
Our guide for the day was a delightful, friendly and excellent English speaking man, Said (pronounced Sigh-eed). He commenced our tour giving us a potted summary of the history of Fès.
Fès is located between the fertile lands of the Sais which we passed through yesterday and the forests of the Middle Atlas Mountains. Fès is the oldest of Morocco’s imperial cities and is regarded as its religious and spiritual capital and as such was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1981.
The city was founded by Idriss I on the banks of the Fès river in 789 AD. The initial residents were mainly Muslim refugees expelled from Córdoba and Kaiouan in Tunisia.
Fès’ status as an intellectual centre was largely initiated by the founding of its university (University of al Qarawiynn) in 895 AD making it the oldest university established in the western world, being older than Oxford, Cambridge or the Sorbonne according to the Guinness Book of Records! The university was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri who had inherited a vast fortune from her family’s business doings. She used her inheritance to build a mosque and educational centre as well.
By the mid-11th century Fès had become the centre of Islamisation in Morocco and in 1145 after a long siege, Fès took on the status of the country’s foremost cultural, intellectual and economic metropolis.
There is so much to see in Fès and in the ancient Fès medina (walled city) the many kilometres of networked alleyways together with the shoulder to shoulder crowds mean it would be very easy to get lost. Consequently we kept pretty close to Said for the next five hours of sight-seeing.
Our entrance to the medina was via the Blue Gate (Bab Boujloud) a triple arched Moorish gate decorated with many thousands of blue mosaic tiles.
Gate to the market area
The souk (market) on the inside of the gate was one where everything in the way of foodstuff could be purchased. Fresh fruit and vegetables of every imaginable type plus spices, nuts, eggs and meats (except pork!) were all on sale.
Spices
Dates
We tasted some small mulberry like fruits that had a distinctive strawberry flavour.
Mulberry type fruit
Mulberry type fruit
Rose petals for making jam or for their odour were for sale too.
Rose petals
A woman making thin crepes on a gas heated circular steel plate showed extraordinary dexterity in her high speed production line.
Lady making crepes
Butchers with cages of live chickens were be-heading the poor birds, plucking them and preparing them for sale once a customer had selected their poultry choice.
Of particular interest was the 1385 ‘water-clock’ high on the side of an alleyway building with twelve in-line windows. Hemispherical dishes that are now removed had cascading water filling each container per hour and a window representing the hour would open; somewhat like a hydraulic ‘sand-timer’.
Water clock
We then visited the Bou Inania Medersa, a 1350 AD residential college for Islamic students. The courtyard was decorated with very fine zellij tile-work, intricate wooden carvings and stucco work. We could observe the elaborate mosque area but were not permitted to enter.
Bou Inania Medersa
A most interesting event then occurred. Said took us through very narrow and dark alleyway where we ended up in a tiny ‘community bakery’. A man with a wood fired oven cooks bread for people who have prepared the dough themselves but don’t have the cooking facility. The baker, who was very keen to show us his craft, had long wooden handled bakers’ ‘shovels’ for adding and removing the cooked bread from the oven. He works and lives alone in this dark, back room and according to Said he is overjoyed when visitors stop by and see him at work.
Baker making bread
Bread with distinctive fork marks
Baker
After passing numerous shops selling, jewellery, shoes, clothes and sewing materials we arrived at the Fendouk el-Nejjarine, one of the most renowned buildings in Fès. Built by the provost Adeyel in the 18th century, this former caravanserai is now a museum. Classed as an historic monument in 1916 it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Entrance to Fendouk el-Nejjarine
Inside Fendouk el-Nejjarine
The three floors of the museum house displays of wooden arts and crafts. Amongst the many items were musical instruments, furniture, wooden locks, children’s toys and old artillery equipment. The view from the upper, open level offered a panoramic view across the old medina and the very prominent Dar-el-Makhzen Royal Palace with its tall green capped minaret.
View from the top of Fendouk el-Nejjarine
View from the top of Fendouk el-Nejjarine
View from the top of Fendouk el-Nejjarine
View from the top of Fendouk el-Nejjarine
One can’t visit Fès without going to the Derb Chouara or the Tanners’ Alley. The leather hides are traditionally tanned in numerous vats containing noxious chemicals including colouring agents, sulfur compounds and pigeon droppings. Not surprisingly, the smell is unpleasant and strong. The hides are mostly goat or sheep but cow and camel are sometimes processed too. Above the open vats’ area is a terrace with a large collective shop selling leather goods such as bags, coats and slippers. Men traditionally wear yellow leather slippers where the tanning process involves the leather being repeatedly softened in vats with saffron as the dyeing agent.
Derb Chouara (Tanners’ Alley)
Derb Chouara (Tanners’ Alley)
Derb Chouara (Tanners’ Alley)
Derb Chouara (Tanners’ Alley)
Derb Chouara (Tanners’ Alley)
Carting leather from Derb Chouara (Tanners’ Alley)
A refreshing pure orange drink in the brass workers’ area was needed as the temperature hit the high 20s. We had a final visit for the day to a weaver’s workshop where we saw an intricate pattern silk material being made by a happy craftsman working on an old-fashioned hand and foot operated loom. Corinne bought a blue and white scarf woven from ‘silk’ extracted from the blue agave cactus plant.
Weaver’s workshop
We said farewell to Said after a superb day visiting some of the sights of Fès and then returned to our hotel, the Riad Myra.
For our evening meal we went to the nearby ‘Cinema Café’ and had a pleasant repast before heading back to Myra.
Tomorrow we head south to the Middle Atlas Moutains and then on down towards the Sahara.