Fes

Fes is considered the cultural capitol of Morocco and after exploring the maze of the medina we can see why.  The people here strive to keep their crafts alive and to maintain the traditional way of doing things.  You won't see a machine doing the work here.  Individuals inherit their jobs from their parents spend most of their life perfecting their craft.  Fes is most known for its pottery and leather goods.

In the morning we met up with our tour guide for the day, Aziz, and headed out to the attractions outside of the medina.  We traveled first to the palace (The king has a palace in each major city).  There, again, we took photos of the beautiful gate as Aziz gave us information about the meaning behind the different materials used.  From there we walked down one of the remaining Jewish areas of the city.  Here the architecture was vastly different with balconies overlooking the street and wood being used instead of plaster.

Ceramics are one of the only crafts that has moved outside of the medina.  Clay is brought in and tempered until it is the right texture for shapping.  From there artists use a pottery wheel and a well trained eye to shape pitchers, tangines and bowls out of the clay.  Firing occurs in two stages; first to harden the clay and second to add glaze.  In between these steps painters use fine tipped brushes crafted out of horse hair to draw detailed designs on the pottery.  Their attention to detail and accuracy amazed me as none of them used stencils and each plate was identical.

So many pots to look at!

Inside the pottery centered we watched a few men chip away at colored tiles to form the detailed shapes of mosaics.  These mosaics are layed out upside down and then concrete is poured.  Artistians must be exact as there is no room for error once the concrete is poured and no one knows what it will look like exactly till it has set.  These mosaics are then made into mirrors, sinks, fountains, etc.

We had a chance to browse the shop at the end of the tour.  Everything was so beautiful and I was overwhelmed by the number of choices.  In the end I didn't end up getting anything but Josh picked up a beautiful piece outlined with metal detail.

From here we headed to a fort overlooking the city.  You could make out the different sections from the old medina to the ville noville. I was surprised the drastic change from section to section.  The differences were even more clear later on in the day when we were able to go into the ville noville.  We could have been in any U.S. city!

Us overlooking the Fes medina

After getting a bird's eye view of the town, we headed into the narrow streets of the medina.  First walking through the food market.  Stalls were overflowing with olives and meats, veggies and fresh fruit, sweets and pastries to eat.  The medina seemed to be set up in sections as we wandered into the metal works and heard the banging of hammers on steel drums.  Here you could find anything from a tea set to an old sword.

We passed by the second largest mosque in Morocco.  This mosque can hold 20,000 at capacity and has 14 doors to make entrance from the medina easier.  We weren't able to enter but got a few photos from the doorway.

One of the entryways into the mosque

With our senses on overload, we followed Aziz to the tanning section of the medina.  This was a site I wanted to see since I read about it in the guide book but I was worried about the smell.  The pigeon poop and cow dung used to remove the fur from the hides was supposed to put off a pretty powerful odor.  Lucky for us it really wasn't so bad.  I think the combination of the mint they gave us to smell and the lack of wind really helped.  Down below our balcony, men stood waist deep in vats of red and yellow dye.  I was impressed how they could easily walk between the narrow vats in their large rubber boots carrying a number of skins at a time.  Some of the skins were placed on the roofs to dry while others were taken to the few open grass spots in the medina to lay out in the sun.  With an all natural process, workers had to rely on the sun to dry out the hides.  The dyes themselves were also all natural.  Red was made from red poppy plants.  Blue from indigo and yellow from saffron and oil

The tanneries inside the medina

After taking a few photos, Josh and I browsed the selection at the shop.  We knew we wanted to get a few pieces but didn't think we would come away with as much as we did.  I ended up getting some pretty amazing leather boots and a beautiful handbag.  Josh scooped up a belt and a really neat "poof" that had a camel hand-stitched into the leather.

All the shoes on display

From the tanneries we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then visited a craft museum.  Even though the descriptions were only in French and Arabic, we were able to see a lot of the old artifacts of Fes.  It was neat to see how they had evolved to what they were today.

The inside of the museum

Then we headed to the madrasa or Koran school.  This school dates back to approximately 200 AD.   From the outside it didn't seem like much but once inside we were able to admire the beautiful designs of the arches and mosaics.

An beautiful arch in the medrasa

Our last stop of the day was a quick trip to an antique showcase house.  Even though we knew we couldn't afford anything in the house it was nice to be allowed to browse a bit.  There were marble chairs and very detailed wooden furniture.  Old Berber jewelry lined display cabinets and Jewish artifacts dated back to the 17th century.

After an exhausting day in the medina, we dropped off Aziz and headed back to the riad.  The next day would be a lot of traveling as we made our way from Fes all the way to Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara.

Our riad in Fes

A valentines dinner