The Imperial Cities
THE IMPERIAL CITIES - MEKNES AND FES
Morocco's political axis has shifted over the centuries. While Marrakesh was the capital for many years, and Rabat, on the Atlantic coast, is now the centre of government, Morocco's empire was founded in the Middle Atlas mountains of the east – in the cities of Fes, Meknes, and Moulay Idriss. In five days, you can visit these imperial cities, and see Morocco as it was in the Middle Ages – though the hotels, fortunately, have developed a few more mod cons over the last six centuries. You can start your stay in Meknes, moving on to stay in Moulay Idriss, then in Fes - or you can, if you like, use Fes as your base.
By Andrea Kirby and Jacques Combeau
Meknes
Meknes is an imperial city, the creation of one man, Moulay Ismail, who made it his capital in 1672. (It was only capital for a few years - after his death, the capital was moved back to Marrakesh). Ismail was the ruler who fought off the Ottoman Turks, firmly establishing Morocco's independence; and he chased the European powers out of their enclaves on the coast. He's still regarded as one of Morocco's greatest rulers.
'he was a strong and successful ruler,
but violent and cruel'
Moulay Ismail's huge, unfinished, now mainly ruined palace south of the main square is a megalomaniac work; massive, brutal, and impressive for its sheer size rather than for delicacy or elegance. That reflects the character of the man himself; he was a strong and successful ruler, but violent and cruel. He's said to have beheaded servants who displeased him on the spot, and slaves who died while building the palace were said to have been built into the walls (though no one has ever found one of the bodies, so it's probably a myth).
The Dar el-Kebira, the first of the palaces, originally had twelve great pavilions; ruined by the huge earthquake of 1755, their hulks are still crudely impressive. The Dar el-Makhzen palace, in better shape, is still a royal residence, and closed to the public; but nearby, the huge underground granaries of the palace can be visited. The Heri-es Souani complex holds more granaries and huge vaulted chambers, with the wells that brought water to the palace.
Further out from the city is the Rouah or old stables, ruined, but vast in extent – they housed 12,000 of Moulay Ismail's horses – with a vast canal to bring water, and the great Agdal basin, practically a man-made lake.
Although Moulay Ismail was an ogre, he's also regarded as a saint; local village women come to ask for baraka (blessing). Non-Muslims can visit the outer parts of his mausoleum (though not the tomb chamber itself) inside the palace.
But Meknes isn't just the imperial city. From the Bab el-Mansour (the great gate to the palace), head north into the medina. Here is perhaps the best museum in Morocco, the Dar Jamai , in a palace of 1882 that belonged to the family of the vizier, or prime minister. The courtyard is delicate, with crisply serrated arches and almost op art tile patterns; inside is a collection of fine craft works.
'Meknes is full of muted, deep colour
– the dark blues and black of the zellij, the bronze-green
roof of the great mosque,
and the distinctive green-tiled minarets'
Older than any of the palaces is the Medersa Bou Inania, founded under the Merenid rulers in the fourteenth century. It's small, but wonderfully ornate; light turquoise zellij, ornate, precise plasterwork, and a single narrow frieze of kufic inscription in black on gold. Meknes is full of muted, deep colour – the dark blues and black of the zellij, the bronze-green roof of the great mosque, and the distinctive green-tiled minarets.
It is Meknes's souks which are the glory of the medina. Here you'll still find saddlers and tentmakers, basketmakers and blacksmiths, a carpenters' souk and a flea market, as well as the more common textiles and leatherwork. Dim qissariat, covered markets off the main streets, afford refuge from the blinding sun of midday. Near the Bab el-Jedid, the musical instrument makers have their own small souk; gold and jewellery are clustered near the gate to the Mellah (Jewish quarter) with its synagogues and tall, narrow houses. Tinsmiths' hammers sound out a bright tattoo; someone plays a hollow bass beat on a guimbri in a room across the way.
Outside the walls to the north, in a huge cemetery, is the shrine of Sidi Ben Aissa, a local saint. Here, his devotees used to cut their tongues till the blood ran, eat glass, and even eat live snakes (don't do this at home!); like Moulay Ismail the beheader, they belonged to a vivid but cruel age. Now, pilgrims to the shrine are less extreme in their devotions.
From Meknes, it's about thirty kilometres to Moulay Idriss – one of Morocco's less visited towns.
Moulay Idriss
Moulay Idriss is the most venerable, and oldest, town in Morocco. It was founded by the saint, Moulay Idriss I, who fled Mecca in the late eighth century, a refugee from tribal and religious conflicts, and its founding marks the beginning of the Idrisid dynasty. The pyramidal, green-tiled roof of his mausoleum dominates the huddled houses; every August, pilgrims crowd the streets, coming to ask the sainted ruler's blessing (they say that five pilgrimages here as as good as taking the haj pilgrimage to Mecca).
'inside the walls, zigzagging steps,
covered alleyways, winding passages
lead you upwards'
Moulay Idriss's site, with twin hills – Khiber, the higher, and Tasga, the lower – set each side of a river, among wide green river valleys, make it the loveliest of Moroccan towns. Tracks lead up the hills both sides, through terraced fields and orchards, with views of the town below. Inside the walls, zigzagging steps, covered alleyways, winding passages lead you upwards; a gap in a street wall might lead to a blind alley, or to a view of the town spread out below - who knows?
Saturday is market day, filling the town's streets with visitors and traders; donkeys carry fresh produce up the steep streets, while vendors bellow their wares to the passers-by.
You'll see in some guidebooks that non-Muslims are not allowed to stay in the town. This is no longer true; you can stay as long as you like. But you might want to avoid the moussem in late August and September, when the shrine is thronged with worshippers.
Volubilis
The Roman city of Volubilis is four kilometres from Moulay Idriss; it's a good walk (though you can take a bus or taxi). But it's a sad story – the site of a major ecological disaster. The Romans deforested the whole area to grow the huge amount of wheat their citizens needed, and hunted down wild animals for the gladiatorial games. 'Bread and circuses' was what the emperors wanted – and to get them, they destroyed the wildlife of the North African littoral.
Volubilis (Oualili in Arabic) was only a provincial town, but it's clear from what remains today that it was a sophisticated and cosmopolitan one. The basilica's columns march into blue sky, and the walls of the capitol still stand crisp and clear. But the real attraction is the superb mosaics, on mythical themes – Orpheus and his lyre, Bacchus in his panther-drawn chariot. A muted palette of greys, browns and greens, black and white, emphasises the occasional flash of bright red or yellow. There are lovely gardens, too, where you can find cool shade.
Fes
Bustle, hassle, sophistication; learning, politics, commerce, wide boys - Fes has it all. The university here was famous throughout the medieval world, and Fassis (men from Fes) still head up many of the government's ministries. Yet what most tourists come for is Fes-el-Bali, a meandering maze of alleyways with one of the busiest souks in the country.
'one of the busiest souks in the country'
Fes is three separate towns – Fes-el-Bali, 'old Fes', with its medina and souks; Fes-el-Jdid, 'new Fes', with the Jewish Mellah; and the ville nouvelle built under the French protectorate in the early 20th century, with its cafés, wide boulevards and shady parks. The towns remain quite separate, the old towns surrounded by cemeteries and shrines.
You may want to come back and relax in the ville nouvelle cafés in the evening. But start your tour with a visit to the old town – Fes-el-Bali.
It might be a good idea, before plunging into the medina, to head out of the city, on a half-hour trek past the barracks of the Kasbah de Cherarda, all the way to the ruined Merinid kings' tombs and the northern watchtower of Borj Nord. This area is a wasteland that you might find romantic, or just plain depressing – but it's worth it for the expansive views of Fes, sprawling over the valley bottom below. And you'll be able to see how the different parts of the city fit together, and get a feel for its geography – the clustering of buildings round the green roofs of the Kairouine mosque and medrese, the spider-web of streets.
Fes-el-Bali
Ten thousand winding lanes, a million secrets. The scent of sandalwood and the stink of tannery vats, or the smell of a rich tagine floating out of a nearby kitchen. Streets too narrow for cars; some even too narrow for a loaded donkey. Doors that open on to dim arcaded courtyards. Brightly coloured carpets laid out in the sun. Fes-el-Bali is all these impressions, and more; a huge city centre, in many ways unchanged since the Middle Ages.
Your first contact with the old city will most likely be Bab bou Jeloud, the gate from the ville nouvelle. Here are the cheap hotels and cafes – here too are the hustlers, all trying to convince you to hire them to guide you around Fes. (Ignore them long enough – and keep walking – and they'll give up). And unless you're pressed for time, ignore the guides; Fes is a place where you need to explore, a place where a small adventure is waiting down every side street. You can see the main sights efficiently in a few hours – but you'll have missed the real Fes, the Fes of the backstreets.
And don't worry about getting lost. As long as you get back on to one of the main streets, you'll be able to orientate yourself – downhill towards the ville nouvelle, uphill to the Kairouine mosque.
The whole of the city can seem to be one huge building; you can't see where one house ends and the next begins. Many buildings are hemmed in by others, nearly invisible. You pass doors giving you tantalising glimpses of secret courtyards, or shady gardens.
At the centre of the city is the great Kairouine mosque, begun by Arab immigrants to the city, with the Kairouine university. Together with Cairo's Al-Azhar, this is the oldest university in the world; it sets the dates for Ramadan and other movable feasts in Morocco. The mosque was rebuilt by Abd er Rahman III, ruler of Cordoba in Spain, and was inspired by Cordoba's Great Mosque. (The Spanish influence here was strong – later, the mosque's pavilions were modelled on those in the Courtyard of the Lions in Granada's Alhambra palace). Only Muslims can enter the mosque, but many gates give a view into the interior, mysterious in its dappled light, and the fine open courtyard.
'here are the copper and brass workers' shops;
huge cauldrons and pots stand on the street,
gleaming in the sun'
Other monuments nestle up to the great mosque. Here is the Zaouia, the mausoleum of Moulay Idriss II; bars across the gate mark the limits for non-Muslims. The dark green tiles of the Zaouia and the mosque stand out against the white and grey houses of Fez-el-Bali. Here's Place Seffarine, its old fig trees gnarled and wicked with age. And here are the copper and brass workers' shops; huge cauldrons and pots stand on the street, gleaming in the sun.
The spice market (souk el attarin) is not far from the mosque; spices, being high in value and small in volume, were always sold close to the main mosque, in the highest status part of the souk. Close by is the Najjarin funduk, an ancient warehouse, now a woodwork museum, and the Medersa el Attarin (a university college). The medersa is one of Fez's earliest, dating from 1325; it's all fluidity, elegance, lightness, and shimmering subtle colour – gold and bronze, blue and green.
The souk is always busy. There are lurid babouches, as everywhere in Morocco – bright blue, shocking pink, postbox red – but also classy grey and black. Honey and butter, drums and pots. In the henna souk you'll see piles of dull green henna powder, and kohl, and lip reddener. You can buy traditional Fassi pots in blue and white, or pots from Safi with heavy green and blue glazes. Colour is everywhere, and it's always busy.
Head downhill to the Oued Fez, the river that runs through the centre of the city, and you'll find the dyers and tanners. The tanneries are filthy but visually dramatic; skins are laid out to dry on the roofs, and in the open courtyard, tanners dunk the soaked skins into vats of dye. Some of the skins are rotting, and there's the rich stink of pigeon guano used to soften the leather; it's an assault on the senses. (Sniff a bunch of mint if you find the smell too strong.) The dyes now are often chemical, not natural, but the colours still recall the natural world – the red of poppies, the yellow of turmeric or saffron, the green of mint.
Across the Oued Fez from the tanneries is the Andalusian quarter – where the Arab refugees from Spain settled, and centred round the Andalusian mosque. For years, it was a separate city, with its own walls and gates that were closed at night. It's more relaxed than the medina, and quieter, and towards the Bab Ftouch, a bit run down. But it's here that you'll find an interesting flea market, with entertainment aimed at the locals, not the tourists – storytellers, slapstick actors, vaudeville.
Back at the Bab Bou Jeloud, leave the bustle of the streets behind for the Dar Batha, a hundred year old palace which contains an interesting museum. And then head for the delightful Medersa bou Inania, another fine college, and the mysterious waterclock opposite, with a row of brackets from which copper bowls once hung, and dark little windows in the wall. No one knows quite how it worked; what happened when the bowls were full? Maybe we'll never find out.
Fes-el-Jdid
Fes-el-Jdid got its name in 1273, and ever since it's been 'new Fes' – even though it's now seven centuries old! It was built by the Merenid kings, who put their huge royal palace here.
The Mellah feels very different from Fes el-Bali; its high, narrow houses, and ornate ironwork in the windows and galleries, give it a distinctive flavour. Wander round the Hebrew cemetery with its white, round gravestones; you can see where visitors have left pebbles on the graves to remember a friend or relative, or a great rabbi. It's a quiet place, the graves laid out in neat lines, each one alike; how different from the bustle of the souks!
But your tour doesn't have to be all big cities. Take a day trip from Fez to Sefrou to experience the life of small-town Morocco.
Sefrou
The little town of Sefrou stands in the foothills of the middle Atlas, 28 km from Fez. It's older than Fes, in fact, but while Fes became great, Sefrou happily remained a rural market town. Its Thursday market still attracts Berbers from outlying villages to its compact medina. Cool in summer, snowy in winter, Sefrou's gleaming whitewashed houses crowd both banks of the Oued Aggai. Fruit trees crowd the slopes around the town; there's a cherry festival in June. And if you follow the river out of town, past the old kasbah, there are waterfalls and fresh springs. In a hot and dusty country, Sefrou comes as a pleasant respite and surprise.
FACT FILE
Meknes
Most of the monuments in Meknes are open 9-12 and 3-5 or 3-6. The mausoleum of Moulay Ismail is closed on Fridays (except for Muslims who may visit for prayer)
There is a small admission charge for most.
Trains to Marrakech and Fez (1 hour to Fes, 7 to Marrakesh), buses to Rabat, Casablanca, Chefchaouen, Tangier, Fes (hourly to Fes)
Moulay Idriss
There are hourly buses to and from Meknes. Fes is an hour's drive away; a grand taxi makes a reasonable hire if there are three or four of you in the party.
Fes
Note that if you do want a guide to the old city, the official guides have small gold medallions (and get 40 percent commission on any purchases you make in the souk).
Opening hours:
Medersa bou Inania: 8-5.
Medersa el Attarine: 830-530.
Dar Batha: 830-12 and 230-630.
Nejjarin Funduk: 10-5.
Shopping in Fes
If you don't want to buy in the souk, or if you want to establish the level of prices before heading into the medina, visit the Centre Artisanal, Avenue Allal Ben Adbullah, just by the Sheraton hotel, or the shops on Avenue Mohammed Vin the Ville Nouvelle. Here the prices are fixed (though you should ask for a discount if paying cash).
For another interesting shopping experience, leave the Andalusian quarter from Bab Ftouch, and take the Taza road 2 km out of town, to reach the Fes potteries.
Sefrou
Sefrou can be reached from Fez by regular bus or grand taxi.