Fes

This is a picture of Fès from a hill-top kasbah. The medina of Fès is said to be impossible for the tourist to navigate. With more than 500 dead end alleyways and a twisty-turny labyrinth of streets and passageways, I am completely prepared to believe it. Fortunately we had a guide to the medina and enjoyed our time here immensely.

Today Morocco is a monarchy. All major cities in Morocco have royal palaces which serve as the King's residence when he is there. The ones we saw tended toward the modern and had similar plans ... Surrounding walls provide security, interior gardens provide shade and respite from the heat of the day, interior administrative building hold the working administration of the government, and residential apartments provide a place for the King and his family to live. These are all places of conspicuous consumption. Here the door to the Royal Palace of Fès showing a finely worked design in metal...

... and here an extreme close up showing the detail of the craftsmanship.

Medina girl. Recognize her?

In the medina, there are many mosques. This view is from an open doorway into the interior of one. Generally, non-Muslims are forbidden to enter mosques, not because of their faith, but because of a secular law passed during the French protectorate. This was designed to avoid religious violence as Muslim and Christian cultures mixed.

In the medina, the souks (themed markets) are places to manufacture as well as sell. Here, within a shop dedicated to brass and copper pots, is a boy caught in the act of hammering a pot from a piece of metal. Most of this sort of manufacturing is hand labor and much of it is performed by the young and the very old. Child labor laws seem absent, or at least unimportant, here.

Here within a shop which sold fabric is a loom used to make it. We watched many weavers weave intricate and beautiful patterns. The colors are bright and vibrant. The quality excellent.

Interestingly, many of these shops are models of "vertical manufacturing integration." In the same shop as above, an old man spins the thread used to weave the fabric. According to Islam, this man would leave his work 5 times a day to pray. Hence the prevalence of mosques within the medina.

Just off one of the largest medina passageways, we entered a rug souk, and subsequently a rug shop. After drinking the perfunctory mint tea, we were shown a variety of rugs ... some modern and some "antique" ... big rugs and small ... cheap and expensive. Bargaining is the normal order of business.

Many of the rugs were beautifully made. While we were not in the market for rugs, there are many true bargains here for the person with the knowledge to discriminate according to quality and price ... and the courage to bargain aggressively. Even with finely tuned bargaining skills, the tourist will usually leave money on the table while walking out with a good rug at a good price.

From a smaller medina passage way, we entered a leather goods shop and were escorted to a terrace overlooking one of three main tanneries. If not for the powerful smell, the honeycomb of vats would seem endlessly fascinating. No mint tea here, only mint leaves held close to your nose to counteract the smell.

The tanners are born to their trade and appear stork-like, their long legs working through pools, bobbing down to worry a skin, then striding off to wash it in fresh water. All the chemistry is supposedly natural but I suspect the tanners have a permanent tan (as though from wearing walking shorts in the desert) from mid-thigh down.

Tanners have a cooperative guild with hierarchies of apprentices, craftsmen, and masters. A whole range of processes occur: fresh skins are treated and pounded in alternating liquid and solid vats of urine and pigeon shit; they are scraped; wet dyed; scraped; and perhaps dry dyed before being trimmed and sold at auction.

All the medinas we visited had a souk for spices. This is typical.

Medina mistake? When we returned to the hotel after a busy day in the medina, I noticed this photo on my digital camera. Apparently, during the day, I brushed against someone or something and triggered the shutter. At that instant, this image seemed to capture the spirit of the medina. Exciting. Exotic. Colorful. A whirlwind of activity. A truly memorable experience. I choose to call it art, not of mistake!