FES. La ville essentielle

Fez, Morocco’s most prestigious city, is home of a highly refined civilization. Heir to a history of several millennia, it remains one of the most important cities in all of Islam. No other Moroccan city shows the tribulations of time as Fez does. Grandiose buildings and monuments scattered across the city make it a place rich with memory. It is hard to escape the weight of history in Fez, and one can write the story of the city by attentively exploring its thousand-and-one edifices. Passing through one of its monumental gates, visitors must let themselves be carried away by the multifarious crowd and head off into the areas where the various souks are. These souks are often compact webs of shops, or fonduks, which lead to the kaysariyya, the main market for precious goods, and to the Qarawiyyin mosque, the center of the city and the spiritual and economic heart of Fez. As a polyphonic city, with colorful quarters, and a noisy atmosphere with a kaleidoscope of scents wafting through the air, Fez constantly calls on all the visitor’s senses. But hidden behind these public spaces is another Fez, domestic and peaceful, silent and meditative, which seems to keep out foreign eyes. With dark alleys, unpredictable dead ends, narrow, twisting streets, and disturbing turns, the residential part of the city is a hodgepodge of enclaves, sometimes closed off, and family groupings in quarters whose rules of organization and borders are known only by the inhabitants of Fez themselves. The author takes us on a detailed visit of the city, thoroughly documented, so we can contemplate the beauty of Fez.