Fez

A visit to Fez is at once an assault on the senses and stimulant to one’s spirit. Bustling with artisans and merchants, the city’s captivating sounds, fragrances, and colors mesmerize the visitor with a constant swirl of activity. The banging of metalworkers, the whirr of weavers, and the wailing of muezzins calling for prayers carries on today much as it did for hundreds of years. Founded at the beginning of the 9th century by Moulay Idriss II, great-great-grandson of the prophet Mohammed, and now Morocco’s third largest city, Fez is no longer the capital, but it still lays claim to being the country’s cultural, intellectual, and spiritual heart.

A cradle of religion, Fez boasts 785 mosques, numerous madrasas (religious schools), and some of the oldest and most important synagogues in North Africa. Fez scholars introduced astronomy and medicine to the West via Spain when it was under Moorish rule, and Al Qarawiyin University was one of the places responsible for keeping alive the light of knowledge during Europe's dark ages. The extraordinary Al Qarawiyin Mosque, the oldest in Morocco, still has it original minaret, built in 956.

Overlooking the valley that embraces the city, the Merenid Tombs offer spectacular panoramic views. Behold Fez as it looked more than a thousand years ago, resplendent with magnificent palaces, green-roofed holy places, domes, and minarets, save the odd satellite dishes dotting the rooftops. The ancient city wall hems in the workshops and tenements, souks and squares, a mass of humanity and the ubiquitous donkeys. Fez is secretive and shadowy, but captivating and colorful at the same time.

The city’s medina has been continuously inhabited since the 10th century and still bustles with a bewildering throng of colorful people, from olive-dealers and veiled women on their way to the baths, to industrious merchants and traditional bell-ringing water-sellers. Labyrinthine streets and crumbling grandeur add to the intrigue. The medina of Fez is the most complete medieval city in the world still in existence, and it forms a working model of a traditional way of life. The maze of winding streets and covered bazaars offers up magnificent examples of Andalusian-Arabic architecture as well as the activities of numerous craftsmen at work. Exotic delicacies, brightly colored carpets, and fine artisan goods burst from endless stalls. The buzz of buying and selling often is interrupted by the urgent cries of mule drivers delivering heavy carts while warning shoppers to flatten themselves against the walls or be flattened themselves. Gnaoua musicians dance, tassels spinning, through the streets, contributing to the animated atmosphere. Arched gateways lead to brilliant courtyards, created of lavish and pristine marble, carved cedar wood, colorful intricate tile (zellij) and carved plaster, which are oases of calm within mosques, riads (traditional mansions), inns, and madrasas. So precious are Fez's history, architecture, and culture, that the entire city has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Many of Morocco’s rich crafts are made by Fez’s artisans. For hundreds of years such work has been regulated by traditional guilds, ensuring the highest quality. Each district has its own specialty: silver-enameled pottery, hand-woven carpets, wrought iron, woodcarving, weaving, embroidery, calligraphy. One can look on as the dyer stirs his yarns, the weaver creates delicate tapestries, or the ceramics worker lays intricate mosaics. No visit to Morocco would be complete without a visit to the famous leather tanneries that produce high quality soft leather that has been sought for centuries. Visitors ascend to any one of the terraces belonging to the surrounding leather shops that overlook the fascinating tanners' yard, honeycombed with vats of dye and piled with skins. Of equal delight are the ceramic workshops that let you follow the delicate process from clay to wheel to glazing to kiln. Fez’s spiritual artistry is showcased at the annual Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, where musicians from around the world gather to celebrate and inspire. Welcoming of visitors, but still more traditional and conservative than cosmopolitan Casablanca or trendy Marrakesh, Fez features some of the loveliest accommodations in Morocco. Pamper yourself in luxurious palaces-turned-hotels or in treasured restored riads as you revitalize for another day of Moroccan adventure.