Fes Hidden Districts: The Royal Palace Golden Doors, the Andalusian Quarter, the Bab el-Ftouh Cemetery, the Silk Weavers Souk, the Sebbaghine Dyers Quarter, and the Fes Night Walk
The Fes hidden districts route covers the Royal Palace golden doors, the quieter Andalusian quarter across the river, the Bab el-Ftouh necropolis, the silk weavers souk with its ancient loom music, the Sebbaghine dyers quarter, and the Fes night walk experience when the medina empties of tourists.
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Royal Palace Gates: The Seven Golden Doors
The Dar al-Makhzen (House of Government) royal palace in Fes el-Jedid, the most extensive single royal compound in Morocco covering 80 hectares within the palace walls, faces the Place des Alaouites public square with seven enormous bronze doors decorated in the geometric arabesque pattern with the golden bosses, representing the most formally imposing single ceremonial gateway in Morocco and the most impressive single use of the decorative metalwork in the Moroccan architectural tradition. The royal palace is not open to the public but the seven golden doors visible from the square are the single most photographed royal facade in Morocco.
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Andalusian Quarter: The Quieter Medina Bank
The Andalusian quarter on the south bank of the Oued Fes, the less-visited half of the Fes el-Bali founded by the Kairouan refugees in 825 AD as the complement to the Cordoba refugee quarter on the north bank, maintains the most completely residential single medina character in Fes with the narrower lanes, the fewer souk stalls, the neighborhood hammams serving the local population, and the Andalusian Mosque (the Jama al-Andalus, the sister mosque to al-Qarawiyyin) as the primary religious center. The Andalusian quarter walk from the Bab Ftouh to the Sidi Ahmed al-Tijani fountain is the most peaceful single medina walking circuit in Fes.
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Bab el-Ftouh Cemetery: The Necropolis Perspective
The Bab el-Ftouh cemetery (Cemetery of Victory Gate) outside the southeast medina wall is the largest single cemetery in Fes and the most historically significant concentration of the Fes scholarly and religious elite burials with the white-painted tombs and the inscribed stones documenting the al-Qarawiyyin scholars, the Sufi masters, and the Fes intellectual community of the medieval period. The cemetery walk provides the single most complete external view of the Andalusian medina quarter walls and the most meditative single space in the Fes urban landscape, completely outside the tourist circuit.
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Silk Weavers Souk: The Ancient Loom Music
The Souk des Tisserands (Silk Weavers Souk) in the north medina, where the hand-operated wooden looms produce the Fes silk brocade and the silk-and-cotton mix fabrics for the traditional Moroccan garments (the takchita, the kaftan, and the djellaba), is the most acoustically distinctive single souk in the medina with the rhythmic clicking of the shuttle and the thump of the beater creating the most ancient single mechanically produced sound in the Fes craft tradition. The Fes silk brocade with the geometric pattern woven from the imported Chinese silk thread is the most technically sophisticated single textile in the Moroccan production.
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Sebbaghine: The Dyers Quarter Color
The Sebbaghine (Dyers Quarter) in the northern medina where the wool and the silk threads are dyed in the vat dye system before weaving presents the most concentrated single visual color experience in the medina with the hanks of wet-dyed thread in the saffron, the indigo, the madder, and the pomegranate red hanging from the upper story rails and hooks to dry in the sun, creating the most photographically saturated single color palette in the Fes medina. The Sebbaghine is the one medina district where the production process is most directly visible from the street without entering a workshop.
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Fes Night Walk: The Empty Medina After Dark
The Fes medina after 9pm, when the tourist traffic subsides and the souk shops close and the neighborhood life of the medina residents takes over the lanes, is the most atmospherically different single urban experience from the daytime medina with the nighttime call to prayer echoing from the 140 mosques, the local residents returning from the evening prayer and the neighborhood cafe, and the lanes lit only by the occasional street lamp and the light from the open doorways. The night walk from the Bab Bou Jeloud through the Talaa Kebira and the return via the Nejjarine fountain is the single most memorable 1-hour circuit in the Fes medina visitor experience.