March 21st to 28th: Fez

This is the medina in Fez, famous for being the largest functioning medieval city in the world, and giving its name to Tommy Cooper’s hat. Sadly we only saw one being worn, and that without the tassel. We did see many beautiful doorways, though, and the example below is from the King’s palace. It’s not open to visitors. The King, Mohammed IV, has a palace in every major city in Morocco and seems to be universally loved as champion of the people against corrupt government bodies. How does he manage that: I though he was the government, or at least a major part of it?


On from the palace, through the Jewish quarter. Most of the Jews left Morocco between the Last War and 1956 to set up in the new state of Israel. The Jews originally arrived here from Spain as a result of religious persecution, so the buildings are in the Andalusian style. The area has decayed quite badly but where premises are being patched up it’s usually good for a photo, as here where a workman is perched high up on a set of rickety planks. Allah decides on Health and Safety matters so you don’t need Risk Assessments.

These are the tanneries. The skins are firstly cured, by being steeped in a mixture of pigeon droppings and cow urine, for many weeks. So there is quite a pong. The vats above contain vegetable dyes that the cured skins are soaked in for about a week, up to 120 skins per vat. In that week, the skins are individually washed through the dye by hand many times, the dyers standing barelegged in the dye vats to accomplish the task. The photo beneath shows one of the dyers working. The process is basically unchanged since its establishment 1,000 years ago. I wonder if the dyers suffer in later life from any ailments as a result of the work, e.g. pickled red-leg syndrome?

The potteries were also rooted in the past, the potter kicking the wheel around with his foot and at the same time managing to make remarkably consistent beakers. The pottery we visited specialised in making mosaic tables. The mosaic pieces are chipped out from fired tiles by hand, glued in a pattern in a frame and then polished up to give the examples shown in the photo below the potter. They ship to anywhere in the world, so there’s no excuse for not buying. Have the answer ready, off pat. “Yes, they are beautiful, but I’m allergic to ceramics: everything’s plastic where we live”. That’s true- it is, in the caravan!


Fes was most interesting with a beautiful wide, landscaped boulevard in the new part of town, and surrounded by high green hills, less touristy than Marrakech but lacking the charisma.