After our lovely breakfast in the rooftop dining room of Dar Attajali, our Fez guide, Nadia, picked us up for our tour of of the Fez medina. We got an amazing education about the history, artistry, architecture, culture and so much more about this amazing city.
Our first stop of the day was the Medersa Bou Inania. It was built in the mid-1300s by sultan Bou Inan.
These carved wooden walls hid women from view.
A brisk walk through the produce and meat souks was one of my favorite things. There were vendors selling all sorts of fruits and veggies, olives, grains, preserved items, like olives and lemons, meat (including chickens, lamb and camel), breads and more. I was in heaven!
We saw sheep everywhere, as families prepared for the upcoming Eid al Khabir holiday.
The Blue Gate
The Fez medina is pedestrian-only, and donkeys were are commonly used to transport things through the maze of narrow streets. pedestrian-only city, so
Public bakery
Harem window - another architectural device that allowed women to see outside without being seen.
Dar Adiyel - music school
Political party postings
Hay and grains for the Eid sheep
Royal thrones for wedding couples
Carpet cooperative, where we sipped Moroccan mint tea and learned all about different kinds of wool, weaving and carpet patterns. Nicole bought an amazing carpet, which was wrapped into a neat little package, the size of a pillow!
Sheep on the rooftop of Nadia’s family’s home.
The family rooster
Lunch with Nadia’s family - tomato and onion salad, olives, roasted peppers, and roasted chicken with quince.
Inside the Kairouine Mosque (non-Muslims cannot enter the mosque)
The leather tanneries were fascinating. The process for dying leather includes a soak in limestone to remove any last bits of hair.
Next, the leather gets a soak and scrub in a pigeon poop solution to soften the leather.
Finally, the skins are soaked in vats of natural dyes. The longer the soak, the more intense the color.
Drying yellow leather in the sun.
After visiting more artisans’ shops and the Zawiya Moulay Idriss II, we ended up back at Dar Attajali. Dinner was again served in the rooftop dining room.
Tonight’s starters were zucchini, tomatoes and peppers (like the previous night), and gigante beans.
The tagine was potatoes, peas and Jerusalum artichokes.
And dessert was a Napolean of cooked apples and yogurt, topped with crushed nuts. What a lovely way to end our amazing day in Fez!