Fez – Hidden Beauty and the Art of the Deal
After our trip back in time at Volubilis, we were bound for the second largest modern city in Morocco - Fez. It was founded in 789 and rests at the crossroads between the important surrounding cities. With the significance of trade and the market in Fez, the labyrinth-like medina was made a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981 and is undergoing active restoration and preservation.
Fez has been the ancient capital of Morocco on and off again. It was a challenge to follow the different leadership and occupation of the city over millennia of history. The peak of development seems to have been during the Marinid era around 1250 in which city gates, mosques, medina, madrassas, parks and palaces were built.
During this time the Jewish quarter - Mellah - grew significantly as Jewish peoples from across Africa were welcome and sought for their craftsman and business skills. The Mellah is adjacent to the royal residence in the Fez Jdid area. The traditionally Jewish homes are distinguishable by their intricate wood-work balconies.
The Royal Palace is in Fez Jdid but is not open to the public. The brass gates were being cleaned by hand using Seville oranges when we visited. The metal design is delicate so the acid from the orange is strong enough to remove tarnish without damaging the doors. And it's citrusy fresh!
Leaving the 13th century Fez el-Jdid, we journeyed up to the fortress walls for a bird's eye view of the old 8th century city/medina called Fez el-Bali. It's an imposing labyrinth of winding streets, dead ends, walls, towers, madrassas, mosques and homes.
According to our local guide, there are 300,000 people living within the old city walls in Fez. It covers about 540 hectares which makes it the largest car-free urban area in the world. Which means goods inside the walls are moved by laden and fast-moving donkeys. If you hear "Balak! Balak!" that means make way (and get your camera ready for cute donkey faces).
On the way down to el-Bali, we stopped to learn about local pottery. In the Fez region, they use rich, grey clay in the pottery and fire it using clay ovens fuelled by burning olive pits.
The painting is done by hand using natural colours - saffron, henna, cobalt, mint.
Painted pieces can be chipped out by hand to make a knockout pattern.
Or ceramic tiles can be sheared and carefully broken into fragments for mosaic work. All mosaic pieces are laid out with the colourful side of the tile facing down so a resin can be applied to the plain backs of the tile. The intricate patterns are done nearly sight unseen!
Time to enter the maze and explore the hidden secrets of the medina. But before we go nuts, it was time for doughnuts. Om nom!
Besides the intricate maze of streets and buildings that immediately serve to disorientate and draw you deeper in, the medina holds many surprises that seem improbable from the outside looking in. Mostly, the exteriors of the buildings seem indistinguishable, but truly, they disguise what lies beyond the nondescript doors. A plain cedar door could conceal a mud walled home of a poorer family or it could wind down ornate mosaic floors to a four or five story kasbah (like the mansion we entered for lunch). Whether a family is affluent or making a subsistence living is carefully concealed from prying eyes.
Within the walls is the (debatable) oldest university in the world, Al-Karaouine, built in 859 CE. The Mausoleum of Moulay Idris II, which appears through small open cedar doors facing a stretch of market stalls, is of significant spiritual relevance to locals who come to pray there.
We made a stop at a lesser-known landmark in the medina: Cerratin Madrasa. In the 17th century, it was the largest school in Fes and housed upwards of 150 students. Now it houses dozens of students trying to take the same artfully framed selfie through the beautifully carved window frames.
Rounding a corner and coming up a set of stairs marked simply with a house number, we emerged from a leather shop to see the Chouara tannery. The leather works have been operating, and in much the same way, for centuries. Leather is brought here from all over the country where it is cleaned, soaked in lye to soften the hides, doused in pigeon poop and dyed in various vats of natural colours. The products are all hand made and of excellent quality, despite smelling like pigeon doody. Fortunately, they give you a little sprig of fresh mint to hold under your nose.
It was in the shop that I scored a pair of soft, leather babouche - Moroccan slippers - and a beautiful camel leather purse. I bargained hard but came to an agreeable, if not excessive, price for my goods. Man, I love the theatrics and drama of bargaining - the posturing and puffery and pouting - and walking away to immediately compare "last prices" with your fellow shoppers to wallow in either smug satisfaction or mild disdain.
Continuing the frenzied shopping, it was time to bargain for scarves. At the weaving shop, two types of scarves were shown to us: agave silk and cashmere. We were also taught how to tie a scarf to keep the wind and sand of the Sahara off our faces. First you tie a knot at the back, then twist the fabric in front and wrap it around your head, tucking it in the side. Then release the knot and pull the extra fabric across your face (or "Bye Fatima!" as the shop owner explained it) and tuck the end in the twist. Viola! Ready for your camel caravan.
Besides a quick stop in a jewellery shop where I almost bought a CDN$250 bronze donkey before my lazy math skills kicked in to do the currency conversion, our medina meandering had come to an end.
Back at our hotel, we discover a bustling little sandwich shop just down the road. I'm glad we stopped in as the chicken sausage sandwich was one of the best and cheapest meals we'd had. Yeah street meat!
And we finished off dinner with an amazing pastry - almond paste in a phyllo dough triangle soaked in honey. So. Good.
Back on the bus bright and early tomorrow for another 9 to 11 hours in transit to Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara. Along the way on a mountain ridge, we stopped to feed a roving tribe of Barbary Macaques. They went... bananas for our snacks. Ha! Okay, we fed them mandarin orange slices, but orange is tough to make puns out of. They're una-peel-ing. That's enough monkeying around with puns. HA!
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