Say the word 'Morocco', and people think of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, or perhaps the tourist-filled red Berber city of Marrakech; an excitement of souks, henna, snake charmers and belly dancers. Maybe they’ve also heard of Tangiers, with its slightly raffish air of the 60s Beat generation, plentiful hashish and lithe brown Moroccan boys. And yet, there sits Fez in its bowl of mountains, facing west, baking in the hot sun, quite different to any other Moroccan city. It’s ancient; its history dates back to the 700s when it was founded by Moulay Idriss, who lies buried in a shrine deep in the medina (old city).
It’s also Arab; no amount of French colonisation has changed that, despite the modern city lying a few kilometres up the road.
It’s also profoundly spiritual; the cultural heart of the country, with hundreds of mosques dotted about the medina so you’re never out of reach of the muezzin.
Most tourists spend just one day in Fez, perhaps staying in an expensive hotel well out of the medina. But such a short stay won't do Fez justice, so stay a little longer and absorb the atmosphere on offer.
The medina in Fez is daunting, no doubt about it. The first time I came here, I decided to take the advice in the guidebook: 'know that you’ll get lost'. It’s not a problem, because you can always find a gate to the outside world where there’ll be a taxi, or a café for mint tea while you try to figure out where you are.
My guidebook says there are 9000 tiny streets in an area of approximately 4.5km². It’s a maze, a labyrinth. The cobbled streets certainly are tiny, and there is no vehicular access. How many cities do you know that you can’t drive into? Some streets are so narrow that you can’t comfortably pass a donkey laden with goods, or a mule carrying gas tanks or Coca Cola crates.
A medieval medina
Another enigma of Fez is that it remains a medieval city. In these tiny streets, you’ll still see men at work; beating patterns into brass trays, painting pottery, shaping copper basins, carving thuya or cedarwood or perhaps fashioning musical instruments such as the indigenous oud or lute. In their breaks, they sit in street cafés and make a glass of coffee last hours, and when the muezzin calls, they disappear into the mosques to pray.
Another enigma of Fez is that it remains a medieval city. In these tiny streets, you’ll still see men at work; beating patterns into brass trays, painting pottery, shaping copper basins, carving thuya or cedarwood or perhaps fashioning musical instruments such as the indigenous oud or lute. In their breaks, they sit in street cafés and make a glass of coffee last hours, and when the muezzin calls, they disappear into the mosques to pray.
There are specific areas for different kinds of goods; the tanneries and surrounding areas for buying leather clothing, bags, pouffes, belts and shoes; the coppersmith areas for trays, teapots, plates and basins; tailoring where you can have a djellaba made (the traditional hooded robe); babouches — slippers with pointed toes that come in yellow or white leather for men, and a multitude of designs, colours and fabrics for women; ornate yellow gold wedding jewellery, and carpentry, including gorgeous golden thrones for weddings, carved tables and artefacts. There are excellent craft stalls selling lighting made of metalwork or thin, brightly dyed goatskin stretched over frames and painted, the ceramics (particularly blue and white) which Fez is famous for, carpets both old and new, antique shops featuring jewellery, objets d'art, furniture and fabrics.
Look out too for hendiras, the traditional cloaks of linen and wool (and sometimes silver sequins) that Berber mothers still weave for their marriageable daughters, as well as cushion covers and traditional wedding belts.
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