Post #6 October 9 Fes Medina

Today when I went down to meet Judith for breakfast around 8:30, I knew I had to ask how to get to the breakfast room. I went down to the lobby and the front desk attendant showed me how to get there.  He led me out the front door and further into the walkway.  The walkways turns to the right and two doors later was the breakfast room.  I find Judith fairly easily; she was the only one there, besides the two staff.  

I order my regular coffee, juice and a one egg omelet.  Today I decide to add in some yogurt and fruit.  Everything was good, nothing exceptional, just good.  When I left to go back to the room and get ready for our Fes tours today, it literally took me two false tries to find the way back to my room.  I had to come back to the restaurant and ask someone to show me how to get back.  Sheesh.

Our guide Mouniem was waiting for us downstairs.  We meet up with the driver and drive over to the Royal Palace.  Also known as Dar al-Makhzen, it is where the king of Morocco resides.  The palace was built in 1276 by the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Ya’qub (the son of the founder of Volubillis).  The site has been expanded and modified over many times throughout the decades.  You can’t enter the grounds but Mouniem advises that it has a unbelievably beautiful garden on the grounds.  

The main gates of the Palace are very impressive.  There were lots of tourists milling around the gates, and I saw even saw someone lift the door knockers on the large doors and bang them a couple of times.  I thought someone would come by and yell at them but nothing happened despite our guide pointing out the undercover police in the crowd.  There is also a large expansive square right in front of the main 

The palace gates

Courtyard facing the palace gates.  It’s hard to see the end.

We continued on into a section of the Medina. The Fes Medina has been formed over 13 centuries of history.  There are two main areas Fes el-Bali (Old Fes), the oldest and largest part of the city and Fes el-Jedid (New Fes) the centre founded by the Marinids in the 13th century.  Both sections have been surrounded by ramparts, and much of these still remain.  

This Medina forms what is considered to be the largest pedestrian area in the world.  Our guide says there’s 8000 alleyways, but I’ve read there are over 10,000.  Within the walls of the Medina are impressive architectural buildings spanning the different periods, all sorts of stalls and workshops featuring skilled craftsmen, mosques, major monuments, a palace, thousands of residences, fountains and funduqs (traditional roadside inns).  Fez medina is one of the best preserved historical centres in the Islamic world and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

There are many souks (traditional markets) in Fes.  Our walk takes us past a few of them.  From the palace we walk past the Mellah of Fes.  It’s the historic Jewish quarter located in Fes el-Jadid.  While it doesn’t  have much of a Jewish population these days, during the 15th century the Jewish community was well established here,   As we walked along this street, I noticed that the buildings got shabbier looking the further we walked from the Palace grounds.  

Dates.  They happen to be in season so they’re less expensive than other times of the year.  

Spices.  Lots and lots.

We got picked up by our driver to go to another part of the market.  On the way we stopped in front of a building with the name American Fondouk.  Our guide tells us that this is a clinic that offers free veterinary care to the many donkeys, mules and horses of the poor.  Many of the 200,000 residents in the Fes Medina completely rely on their pack animals to carry heavy loads throughout the narrow streets.  In 1927 Amy Bend Bishop traveled from America to Morocco as a tourist.  During her visit she saw the poor working conditions of the animals and started American Fondouk to care for these animals.  The clinic continues to operate under the guidance of her son.  

We travel by car up to a vantage point to get a view of the city.  Our guide points out sections of the city and key buildings.  We get back into the van and we’re driven to Fes el-Bali, the old city  We stand at Place R’cif the large village square near the R’cif Mosque.  That mosque complex was pointed out to us as the green roofed building that we could see from our vantage point on the hill but we can’t see it when we’re standing next to it.  Although it has one of the tallest minarets in the city, you can’t see it while in the city—only from the skyline.

We proceed along a souk that was predominately food stalls bearing fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, baked goods etc.  The variety was amazing. 

The souk (markets) are fascinating.  There’s always a sensory overload when walking through these narrow marketplaces particularly when the narrow pathways only allow for pedestrians.  In many souks, there maybe room for two or three people; maybe even room for a small motorcycle or donkey.  Some of the routes have stairs, so that eliminates the motorcycles that could be used to travel within the souk.  

You can catch the smells of baking, spices, rotting food, fish, fresh herbs, etc., the sights of brightly coloured clothing on display, arrays of spices of every colour, shops full of trinkets, leather goods and groceries.  And sometimes taste when we stop and try out various food and snacks.  There’s so much to take in and experience.  Every store is different from the next even though they sell similar wares.

This is quince in the foreground.  

Food.  The jars have olives that have been slit and are sitting in brine for customers to take home and finish processing into olives that we’re used to buying.  

This is a lightbulb shaped cooking surface that cooks up wafer thin sheets of dough.  

This was a stall that dyes clothing.  I was careful not to get splashed on when I walked by.  I don’t think that happens very often, but I didn’t want to be the one.  

There were stalls that were selling odd items that were a bit disturbing to see such as the heads of animals being offered for sale or being cooked.  

The souks blends seamlessly from one to another and the only way to tell them apart is the type of products they sell.  We walked into Seffarine Square, which is full of the craftsmen making copper pots, teapots, bowls, jugs and copper trinkets.  There were coppersmiths in the square hammering out metal products.  Their rhythmic hammering was hypnoic and the accuracy of their hammer blows was pretty impressive.  I watched the metal craftsmen shape their wares for a while. 

Finished copper pot with lid.  This was about 24 inches across.  Note how even the hand hammered blows are on the lid.  

The next building of significance was Fondouq Staouniyine.  Fondouqs were traditional inns designed for use by the merchants, traders and visitors to the city.  This one was founded in the 14th century.  A restoration was completed in 2019 and the building is used as a cultural and commercial centre for artisans.

Then it was through some narrow pathways and we end up at a rug store.  The storey line is that the rugs are made locally or have been brought on consignment due to financial problems.  They are fabulous and I get tempted as I have a weakness when it comes to textiles.  But in the end, my senses return and I decide not to spend $8,000 on two heritage carpets to be delivered to my house.  

Typical pathway in the Fes Marina.  Doorways coming off the pathway often led to buildings that contained a spectacular inner courtyard. . 

The rug store.  This would have been an inner courtyard for the building.  A breathable ceiling was added to this courtyard area.  

Next up was the Mosque and University of al-Qaraouiyyin.  Founded in 859, the building is one of the most important landmarks as it’s considered to be one of the oldest educational institutions in the world.   We could not enter mosques in Morocco because we’re not Muslim.

The University.  You had to be able to recite the Quran before you could be considered.  

The praying area.  Facing the wall is east.  

Our next place of record was the Fondouk el-Nejjarine.  Built in 1711, this restored fondouq houses a private museum Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts, housing a collection of wooden artifacts and tools.  I probably could have spent more time there but ended up taking lots of pictures to study later.

We stopped at a community baking oven.  There are people who run commercial bakeries that bake items (mostly bread) as a service for residences or other bread sellers.  Customers bring in pans of unbaked bread that’s ready to bake.  The baker slides the bread into the gas fired ovens on long paddles, tends to them while they’re cooking and takes them out when they’re done and placed back on the trays that they came in on.  At some point the customer comes back for their baked bread.  It’s an important service because the residences don’t have ovens like these. 

The next stop was the Chouara Tannery.  It’s one of three tanneries in the Fez Medina processing goat, sheep and cow hides.  It’s a stinky place; we can smell it long before we get there.  We’re given a fist full of mint leaves that we can hold by our noses to reduce the vile odor.  It’s hard work to clean, soften, dry, thin them and finally shine them for use by leather craftsmen.  The tanners work in these pits filled with water, lime, salt, bird droppings and bran for the cleaning and processing stages before they are coloured.  You can tell that it’s hard work by watching what goes on in those pits.  We end up buying some goods; it’s hard to resist a good leather store.

It’s hard to envision just how bad the smell was to take these pictures.  

  

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The next stop was a pottery making place.  It was an interesting tour on how clay items are made, especially the mosaic tile work.  Not only did we get to make a few things at the wheel, we also had an opportunity to make a mosaic.  All those individual pieces for all the mosaic tiles are shaped out with a heavy razor sharp hammer.  If you make a mistake, you likely end up cutting off the end of your finger, a career limiting move.  Fortunately for Judith and I, our mosaic pieces were all ready cut for us, so we just needed to assemble it.  The mosaic pieces are laid out upside down and once finished, a frame is secured around the mosaic and plaster poured onto it setting the tile pieces in place and forming the back of it.  Our mosaic consisted of about 90 pieces and about 4 inches x 4 inches.  We saw some underway that were 4 feet by 8 feet, consisting of thousands of pieces.  Wow.  

The ends of the hammer are razor sharp chisels.  The hammer is really heavy so a mistake can end your career by taking off part of your digit.  

Mosaic under assembly.  The pieces are small, there’s many colours and the pattern is intricate.  And you’re assembling it upside down.  

This is a picture of a mosaic column in the Fez market as an example of a finished mosaic. 

In the store we found some pottery items to bring home.  I decided not to take the risk of having it break, so I’m having mine shipped home.  It probably quadruples the cost of the item, but at least I’m guaranteed that I’ll get it home in one piece.  

That’s the end of the day.  We decide to go for dinner at Dar Roumana, a restaurant about 10 minutes from our hotel.  Given that the route is through the Medina the restaurant provides a guide to take us door to door.  If they didn’t, I think we’d still be there, although I did test out Google Maps and it was surprisingly accurate.  The meal we had was excellent.  I had duck and Judith had fish.  Delicious.   

Escort leading the way to the restaurant.  

Thought I’d share my duck dinner. It was pretty tasty.

Tomorrow we get to have a leisurely breakfast before we head out into another section of the Medina.  We need to be ready for a 10:30 start.  

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