The walls of houses in Fez

The walls of houses in Fez are made of lime (jeer), sand, (raml), and bricks (liyajoor beldi). Cement was never used in traditional building. The lime and sand mixture needs to cure for some time to be strong (it used to be that you would prepare the lime and sand before going on pilgrimage to Mecca, and it would be ready when you got back), which is part of the reason many people no longer want to use these materials. The advantage of using lime is that the walls "breathe", which makes the houses cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. In addition, cracks in walls made with lime are said to be able to "heal" themselves in time.

The outer walls of houses were finished with medluk, made of extremely fine sand, lime (jeer), egg white, and sabon beldi (traditional soft soap made from olive by-products). Medluk develops a beautiful marbled effect over time. Simple geometric patterns are sometimes pressed or carved into the medluk. In Marrakech this mixture is called tadlakt, which is slightly finer and shinier due to the difference in the sand and lime from the two cities. These days tadlakt is often colored and has become very fashionable on interior walls. Good examples of new medluk are the inner walls of the Nejjarine Museum, and the outside walls of Dar Adiyel and the Bou Inania Medersa. The bathrooms in many recent maison d'hotes in Fez are done in tadlakt.

The support beams for all ceilings, as well as doors and windows, are made of cedar (ilerz). Cedar planks are placed on the beams and then around 40 cm. of sand and rubble is added for insulation, then a sand and lime mixture is added, and then zellij mosaic tile on top. Sometimes a second set of beams is added below the roof, to which a carved and painted ceiling is attached. There is a space between the two sets of beams to provide extra insulation. All interior floors and the rooftop have a slight slope that leads into a drain. The drain pipes in older houses are made of ceramic cylinders joined together.

There are several kinds of traditional zellij (zellige) tile. The simplest kind is a thick terracotta tile cut before firing that can be square, octagonal, or long rectangles. Sometimes the natural unglazed tiles are used on terraces and modest rooms, and sometimes some smaller glazed squares are added in between for color. Green and white glazed rectangular tiles, bejmat, arranged in a zigzag pattern, are the norm in kitchens.

The other main kind of zellij in Fez are made from thin 10 cm. square tiles that are cut into smaller pieces with a chisel and then assembled into various patterns, sometimes very complex. In the North, in Tetouan and Tangier, the same shapes are made by cutting the pieces before firing and glazing, which results in a more three-dimensional surface and larger gaps between the pieces. Good Fez zellij is flat and has very small pieces with almost invisible gaps in-between. The main traditional colors used are black, white, green, blue, and yellow-ochre. The most common pattern is a colored square, surrounded by black squares, surrounded by colored squares, etc., with white in-between. There is always an alternation between dark colors (green and blue) and light (yellow).

Another technique common in Fez is where the glaze is carved away, giving a contrast between the terracotta color and the color of the glaze that remains. This technique is useful for Arabic calligraphy and curved floral designs.