Fes, a city of 2 million people, has the largest Medina in the world where 150,000 people live and work. It houses the oldest university, 270 mosques, and 9,900 named streets all within its original walls. In my opinion it also has the narrowest streets!
The Jewish quarter is usually found right next to the Kings Palace because they wanted to be near the intellectual and the rich. The kings palace is on 82 acres behind a wall. We visited a fortress that overlooks the Medina.
Just outside the Medina wall we visited a place where they cut the tiles for mosaics. It is not inside the walled area because of the noise and the dust it creates. The artisan places the tiles with the top facing down and does all the designs from memory.
A type of silk made from the agave plant is dyed along with wool and used to make many types of fabric & rugs. They use all natural vegetation for the colors such as saffron, indigo and poppy.
Another section in the Medina was where they make sell silver & brass objects. Morocco has a very large silver mine so these crafts were numerous. A blacksmith was hammering out knives nearby.
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| Lunch! |
Near the university was a large library. We also toured a School of Theology and a dormitory for the students.
The most interesting section was the tannery where hides from goat, cow, and camel were place in numerous huge vats located in the ground. They were first washed with water, lime, salt, pigeon droppings and bran to clean the hide. They are then color the leather using tannins, pomegranate peel or poppy powder. It’s a long process to clean soften, dry them, thin them and then shine it with oil.
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