July 16, 2012

  • 09.07.2012 I better put this on Fezbook.

    When my friend Matt saw some of my pictures here from Fez, he said I ought to put this on Fezbook. And he's right, of course. The endless narrow, winding and twisting streets of Fez are a pure delight, and today's full day tour of the city has been marvellous. The Lonely Planet guide calls Old Fez "mind-boggling" and "a maze", and they are right on both counts. And it was really the walking around bit that I enjoyed the most today, even though there were some fabulous highlights along the way.

    Plans to make Fez the capital city were initiated by Idriss I - who founded Morocco's first imperial dynasty - in 789AD, and not much has changed in Old Fez for the last 1,000 years since it's kind of stuck between mountains and has nowhere to spread (new Fez has been built nearby). The number if Fassis (apparently that is what the inhabitants of Fez are called) living in Fez is around 150,000 according to the Lonely Planet guide, but our guide Mohamed mentioned 300,000.

    Our guide Mohamed also explained that a lot has changed in Fez since it was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site. At this point in time (as the Americans say), 800 houses have been restored, though 2,700 houses are still to be restored. If by "restored", they mean the spectacular transformation that must have taken place in making our hotel Dar Mehdi to what it is, then Fez as a town is in for a treat.

    One highlight today was the visit to the Medersa Al Attarine, an Islamic college and mosque founded in 1325. It was absolutely stunning, and I so wish more of the mosques in Fez were available to visitors. However, it took me quite a while to find out from our guide Mohamed why he kept saying, "Sorry, non-Muslims are not allowed in this mosque" every time we passed the gates of a mosque. After a lot of questions, it seems that only one out 786 mosques inside the city walls allows for non-Muslim visitors (Medersa Al Attarine being that exception) and that this is because at some point in the past "some French soldiers walked into a mosque with shoes on". I guess there's more to the story than this, but this policy towards foreign visitors still feels very restrictive compared to the open and welcoming attitude I experienced in Iran last month for example, where every single mosque was open to foreign visitors.

    Another highlight was the smelly bit of town where all the tanneries were. Apparently, there are over 50 tanneries in Fez, though the smelly ones underground are not open to visitors. I saw a large tannery with maybe 100 vats from the safe distance from above - where there just happened to be this large leather shop - and this spot was pretty much smell-free. This tannery had been founded in the ninth century I was told.

    After a quick visit to the Jewish Quarters and to an elevated point offering a panoramic view of Old Fez, we called it a day. Visitors to Fez would do well in staying longer than I did for my mini-visit, but my train to Tangier is leaving tomorrow morning at 10.20AM, so I've got to move on.