Aziz- guide for Fez.

1st classified world heritage site in Morocco. Is first Arab city of Morocco….Moorish architecture.

13th century… old city Medina. New build 20th century. Walls built 17th century. … is the most Islamic Medina.

Royal palace…1968 facade. Walls from 14th and add-ins and grounds in 17th century.

All the roofs are open to the sky. Windows face inside… no outside, for privacy. Blue is colour of Fez as well as Jewish. Hand chiselled doors (workmanship of metalwork)

Jewish area buildings made from clay….have balconies over street. That is Spain influence. …Berber don’t do idols and pictures of religious symbols because they were nomadic. They made nothing that can’t be taken… so only artist leather, clothing, metalwork & or the like. Fez … known as trade and university centre. Jews started to arrive in 1492 after there was already a settlement here… the walls are I think, 13 feet thick.

Idris II… wanted Fez to be a trade centre. Made stop for travellers outside the Medina walls, 80 kms away.

Drove out and up to get panoramic view of Medina…. Huge!

The Medina was started in 789 AD. There are 9000 alleyways. It’s a maze! You could get lost in it and never find your way out of it. So many craftsmen (it’s a working city) and products for sale, carts being pulled and pushed through the narrow lanes. People bumping their way through. It is really quite something. 97,000 population inside walls. More outside.

The holes in walls is for drainage. Many are taken over by birds for nesting. On top of the gate in Jewish section had huge number of storks and their nests.

Lesson for the day…mule is cross between horse and donkey. They cannot breed.

Qaraouiyine is the oldest continuous university in world. The university founded in 856 by a woman, is all about Arabic language and religion. It was the only university in the country til 1957.

It takes 5 weeks from beginning to end to dye and produce the leather. They never kill the animal for the hide but for the meat and then use the hide.

There are 272 pillars of university/ mosque

Scarfs…. Made from silk threads of agave (did not know agave could produce a silk) is mixed with cotton or wool.

The mosque…carved in plaster…. No pictures just art. Everything must have inscriptions from Koran. 1323AD started to be built and opened 1325AD.

I wished that I could have taken videos or pictures of people and the crush but it is not acceptable.