Photo: Uwe Brodrecht (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Culture and heritage · Morocco
A day in Fes el Bali
The largest car-free old city in the world, with a licensed guide. Al-Qarawiyyin, Bou Inania, the tanneries and the craftsmen's souks.
Fes · Morocco
The experience
You enter Fes el Bali by Bab Bou Jeloud with its blue zellige and walk down the Talaa Kebira, the main lane that drops towards the heart of the city between shops, public ovens and fountains. Your first stop is the Bou Inania Madrasa, built by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan between 1350 and 1355, its plaster, cedar and zellige framing a marble courtyard.
Then Al-Qarawiyyin, founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859, which became a university for students from Morocco and al-Andalus. Nearby are the Al-Attarine Madrasa, Nejjarine Square with its fountain and woodwork museum, and the spice souk.
In the afternoon you climb to a terrace above the Chouara tannery, where hides are dyed in coloured stone vats, then pass the brass and weaving workshops. The walk can end with lunch in one of the medina's palaces turned restaurant.
Fes is a city for walking and its lanes branch endlessly, so a licensed Arabic-speaking guide stays with you and the car waits at the gates.
Morocco
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