Fez, a secret city with mysteries for travellers to Morocco

A mosaic of crafts
Little by little, as the traveller ventures further into the medina, his senses will become accustomed to the different sounds. In the Place As-Seffarine, metallic hammering testifies to the presence of craftsmen making large marriage platters and table services in copper and brass. Further on, the humming of sewing machines and the ringing of chisels on stone moulds can be heard. Emerging onto a little shaded square, the air is filled with the repetitive sound of tapping hammers. This is the neighbourhood where zellige has been produced for a thousand years. Zellige, the marvellous multicoloured mosaics that can be seen on fountains, patios and columns. Here and there, a turn into an alley can reveal a fondouk, an old caravenserai, where the itinerant salesmen could stay and expose their wares. One of the most beautiful in the medina is to be found in the Place An-Nejjarine. It has been renovated and turned into a Museum of wood arts and crafts.

You can tell by the smell when you are approaching Fez’s famous tanneries with their stinking run-off. From the height of a platform, the visitor can watch the agile tanners. Their methods of working around the massive vats of natural colorants have hardly changed for centuries. The skins are soaked in these vats before being turned into the leather goods that have made the reputation of the craftsmen of Fez. Fez, a secret city that can be made to reveal some of its mysteries, a city that offers a myriad of voyages.