A Day in Fes, February 2026

Vegetable silk
Natural and synthetic dyed
More on this below

 

Fes (aka Fez in some languages) is city at the crossroads. Not just the crossroads of place, being at the connecting point of Spain, Arab North Africa, and the trade routes south  thru the Sahara. But also the crossroads of ideas, science, religion, and art.  And with the meet up of all of this stuff, cultures that struggle to keep their unique identities in this great, boiling caldron of cultures.

Note: The photos are all my own. No one to blame but me.  And as I am working on this Blogger is doing its best to be as squirrelly as possible. So you are getting the worst of my ability to format with the best of the internet's ability to screw things up. 

Our guides, Rachid our overall shepherd, and our local guide, who's name is lost to me so I will refer to him as M, were so well versed in their history.  But sometimes it felt a bit like Hamlet's observation: "The lady doth protest too much." 

Our trip started on this overlook.  I could have spent days here.  

The cannon is for all of your black powder folk.

One thing I learned is that when you have your camera set to record location, it can mean many things.  Traveling around Morocco, I found that the phone would choose one place nearby, and attribute all locations to that place.  So like this overlook, I cannot tell you exactly where I was.

 The Mellah

We started our walks outside of the Medina in the Mellah, the Jewish quarter. According to M, the Sultan sanctioned this area for the Jewish quarter so as to keep them close and safe. M talked extensively about how this was to accommodate different cultures living in such close proximity.  Notice how the houses have balconies, and windows facing out. An Islamic house is very sealed to the outside world.  To keep it private. So how much of this description was for what the tourists wanted to hear, how much political white washing, how much was history the way our guide wanted it to be.  I will never know.

Now there is a market place not as interesting as in the medina, its focus not being on keeping the tourists happy, but on the neighborhood trade. The aromas were enticing. 

Semmarin Medina Gate

It is not the main entry to the palace, 

rather it is one of the side entrances.

Dominated by the storks.

The smells in front of these displays
were exquisite. 

Notice the verandas and out facing windows
Once you see it, you can never not see it.

    

I liked the description in Wikipedia Broader political motivations for moving the Jewish community to Fes el-Jdid, closer to the royal palace, may have included the rulers' desire to take more direct advantage (or control) of their artisan skills and of their commercial relations with Jewish communities in Europe and other countries (which could be used for diplomatic purposes).

Royal Palace of Fes

We never got to see the inside.  I think that few ever do. But we did get to stand up close to these magnificent gates. 

In a culture that doesn't show much to the outside world, gates are important in ways that us Euro folk never quite understand. We see gates as a way to keep people out.  These gates are to influence people coming in.

 These are not the temporary slap dash of modernity.  These are are the real thing.  Built not for the people of today, but for the people 200 years, 500 years from now. For the descendants, the future ancestors.

As I am typing this I realize that 21st century builders build for today, because we do not have history in our hearts.  For us there is no tomorrow.

This is the main gate to  Royal Palace of Fes

The artistry from a distance looks stark and plain.  

Up close it starts to boggle the mind.

This is not paint, it is tilework
Make sure to check the post 
on pottery.

   

      

Into the Medina

The Medina is the old part of town, the market place. They say to not  enter the market place without a guide. I believe this.  This is our intrepid guide M. (If any of the tour group knows his name, please enlighten me.) We identified many of the places seen in the video I mentioned, Morocco to Timbuktu: An Arabian Adventure 

These random and poorly shot photos were taken from my phone, held at my side.  I avoided people not of our group. The people here do not like photos, and consider it their right to get tipped if you photo them.  I would have been happy to, but there is this weird thing about money.  You get 100 and 200 dirham notes (move the decimal point one place left for euro, pound or dollar approximation,) but getting smaller denominations or coins is next to impossible.  I would have been a tipper of small amounts to many many people, but it was just not possible. We  hoarded our coins to be able to use the toilets.

Many beautiful old doors

    

These are placed on pieces
hanging in butchers to identify
the kind of meat.

   
 

M identified the fountain
to my left as the one
his granny sent him to 
to fetch water

This is M.
I really wish I took better notes

   

Dyers alley
Those that know me
in real time, know that
this was my trade and
art. This is my ancestory

         

   

Copper artisans
Notice the tree stump
dished out in the center
by decades of use.

A typical tiny stair case
to some mysterious
place

Black smith shop
This photo is about
the full size of the place.
Tiny

Some places you don't know how amazing they are until you look back with a bit more knowledge of what they are.  This was one of the earliest universities of the world.  

This is also one of the places where our guides would quietly vanish for their prayer times.

This is a mihrab.
Here is where the imam stands
while leading prayer, or giving his lesson.
Facing the mihrab places you facing
Mecca, the direction for prayer

   

Facing the courtyard
Notice the tiles, their
surface worn by so 
many feet

            

Here some of the replaced tiles
It is important that the 
replacements are of
sufficient quality to last
the next century

The upper floors are for student 
rooms

      

door detail
These are not embilishments,
rather they are part of the structure of a 
solid, significant door.
Wood is a precious material, 
and protection is necessary.

   

   

Yet another fabulous meal

This photo and the next were the weaving "cooperative."
It is essentially an old family business.
This man is the next generation. He is showing us
something I have never  heard of: vegetable silk.
These are agave fibers, spun to a shiny thread
that looks like shiny plastic, but that has a wonderful hand.

This is the grandfather
The loom is huge. He works it standing
Throwing the shuttle from one side to the other.

The ancient tannery.  
At the bottom of the river run thru town.
Each hide goes thru vat after vat for cleaning, dying
over dying, finishing.

As we entered the leather shop, to go up 5 floors to see this overlook
we were handed a bouquet of mint. to hold in front of our nose
This being February, and cool in the rains, the smell
was not too bad. In the hot season it must be excruciating. 

The best way to record your
hotel is to photo your room key.
You will need to know this at some point
It is also useful to be able to 
tell a taxi driver that doesn't speak your language, or
read your language.