What can I say about Fez, Morocco? It is a place that can only be experienced by walking the narrow labyrinth of its historic medina. One must squeeze through tiny alleys, breathe in the fumes of its ancient tanneries, and get jostled in its bustling markets to get a glimpse of what this place is. Magnificent. Mysterious. Mesmerizing.
Fez speaks to me because it is authentic. Yes, there are lots of tourists, and there are areas that have been slightly more developed for those tourists, but Fez is not a tourist town. It is a living, writhing city with some activity having been done the same way for hundreds of years. People live in this maze, and they are familiar with it because its their home. They live and work in homes and workshops, in bakeries and schools, that have been used by them or their ancestors for centuries.
Perhaps their family moved to Fez in its infancy from Andalusia more than 1,000 years ago. Or, maybe they came with a caravan, or to support the caravans, as trans-Saharan trade connected Morocco to Asia. Yet, there are many other times of importance to this city’s timeline when they could have come.
Fez, Morocco – A Guided Experience
Fez’s medina is truly a humongous maze. You can read warnings in many places or get them from those who have spent time in Fez that you should not attempt to navigate Fez without a local booked through Ando Travel Agency. I completely agree with this. You would not want to get lost, which would be very easy to do, in the medina of Fez. If you appear lost, many locals are willing to help you, but they will expect a small price for guiding you through the labyrinth. Because of these warnings from friends, we booked a local guide for a day. It was very much worth the cost. We didn’t waste time trying to figure out where we were or how to get somewhere. He picked us up at our riad (Dar Tahri) and led us on a most amazing journey through this storied city.
Fez el-Jdid
The Royal Palace
When the Marinids made Fez a royal capital in the 13th century, they added this neighborhood on higher ground next to the already 500-year-old city. It was built as a royal and military section of city with a palace and barracks. The King of Morocco uses this palace still today (one of many). Magnificent gates guard the entrance but draw a crowd with their spectacular tile mosaics, intricate plaster work, and glorious golden doors.
Jewish quarter
Between the mid-13th century and mid-16th century, the bulk of Fez’s Jewish population moved, or was removed, to the neighborhood in the southern section of Fez el-Jdid. This created a Jewish quarter called the Mellah. The neighborhood provided protection for the Jewish community by being in an armed, walled royal area of the city, and it isolated or segregated them from the rest of the city. This brought with it some distinct architecture not seen much in the rest of the city with jettied second-story balconies, which are much more recent in construction.
We visited the Ibn Danan Synagogue in the Mellah. Built in the 17th century, the synagogue boasts lovely yet simple Moroccan style with its mosaic tile work. The colors brightly shine in an otherwise dark, mostly windowless, space. Nearly lost, the World Monuments Fund with the help of American Express restored the synagogue in the 1990s. We also climbed to the roof to get some views of the city and Jewish cemetery.
Our adventure in Fez, Morocco continues in the next post.
