That is the prevalent smell of the Medina in Fes. I will explain later in this blog. Guess what? We awoke to another sunny day in downtown Fes. We organised our guide Mustava to pick us up at the hotel and we set off in a small taxi. We decided to have him guide us for 4 hours and for what we thought was 150 Dirhams each ….just over $20 each, but later we were pleasantly surprised that that was for the 2 of us. We are so glad we had a guide for this particular medina. It covers 350 HA and has 250,000 living within the walls and something like 4,900 roads or lanes. We have to believe Mustava on these facts as we weren’t going to count. Though I think we walked up and down a lot of them. Particularly once he left us and we were lost for an hour or so…but I digress. This city is renowned particularly for its artisans. Actually a lot were employed for 5 years on the huge Mosque in Casablanca. It was fantastic wandering around but this time we were able to concentrate on what we were seeing instead of wondering what street we were on. The silver smiths , shoe makers, stonemasons, woodworkers all in front of us just getting on with it.
We entered many little dingy passages to find some great treasures and sights. The Merdesas we visited were the best example of the crafts that are still prevalent today. A Merdesa is a college for theological teaching and they are centuries old. Actually one of them was 870 AD.
The stonework is still in good condition in places but in others have been restored. The stonework was a mixture of marble, clay and egg whites which made it easier to work the incredible carvings we see now. ...wonder what they did with all the yolks. Wood supports made from cedar were also intricately carved. The ceramics and mosiacs were also something to see. We saw many things that day up and down stairs. Actually very narrow winding steep staircases which opened up onto rooftops with some incredible views. We have never seen so many sky dishes.
A river runs through the medina but is now contained in a cement drain. The further in we walked the stronger the smell until we came across men and donkeys carrying huge amounts of animal skins going to the Tannery. We were excited to be here finally as it is something we had seen on TV and in photos. Up another staircase and into the leather shop this time. This is the only way we are able to look down on what they were doing to dye the skins. The skins were from camel, goat and sheep.
The smell was not very nice and can only imagine on a hot humid day what it would be like. The tanning pits are like huge vats not sure what they were made from. We had the process explained to us. The first pits has Pigeon poo and cow urine mixed in with the water to clean and disinfect the hides …that was the atrocious smell. He said it was the ammonia in those ingredients. The incredible thing is that the young men were knee deep in these vats.
The water was also very cold. They suffer from various health problems as you can imagine. Not great working conditions but they are born into that job. The next vats were varying shades of colour. All the dyes were from plants, vegetables and totally organic. The hides are then dried and brushed depending on the requirements for the shoemakers and other tradesmen. The yellow dye is from saffron which is a lot cheaper here as it is grown down south . The red from poppies, the green from thyme and the blue from indigo. It was a great thing to see.
We also saw the biggest Mosque as far as numbers inside the prayer hall, it held 20,00 and we also visited the oldest university. Children start school from the age of 3 where they learn to recite the Koran totally by heart and they learn the Arabic letters also. Then they start primary school from the age of 6. We had a traditional Moroccan Tagine and Harira for lunch where Mustava left us. We thought we could find our way back but got hopelessly lost and what did not help was the kids having fun with us and sending us down dead end streets. It is funny when you look back on it but the gang of kids increased all wanting their share of the dirhams to guide us out We eventually, after 1 and half hours of getting back to the same spot and much to the amusement of the shop keepers, found our way out to the main entrance. I wanted to hug it. Fes definitely had the most interesting old town of all we had seen. It was a good move having a guide or we would have not seen deep into the Moroccan way of life in Fes.
We entered many little dingy passages to find some great treasures and sights. The Merdesas we visited were the best example of the crafts that are still prevalent today. A Merdesa is a college for theological teaching and they are centuries old. Actually one of them was 870 AD. 
The stonework is still in good condition in places but in others have been restored. The stonework was a mixture of marble, clay and egg whites which made it easier to work the incredible carvings we see now. ...wonder what they did with all the yolks. Wood supports made from cedar were also intricately carved. The ceramics and mosiacs were also something to see. We saw many things that day up and down stairs. Actually very narrow winding steep staircases which opened up onto rooftops with some incredible views. We have never seen so many sky dishes. 
A river runs through the medina but is now contained in a cement drain. The further in we walked the stronger the smell until we came across men and donkeys carrying huge amounts of animal skins going to the Tannery. We were excited to be here finally as it is something we had seen on TV and in photos. Up another staircase and into the leather shop this time. This is the only way we are able to look down on what they were doing to dye the skins. The skins were from camel, goat and sheep.
The smell was not very nice and can only imagine on a hot humid day what it would be like. The tanning pits are like huge vats not sure what they were made from. We had the process explained to us. The first pits has Pigeon poo and cow urine mixed in with the water to clean and disinfect the hides …that was the atrocious smell. He said it was the ammonia in those ingredients. The incredible thing is that the young men were knee deep in these vats.
The water was also very cold. They suffer from various health problems as you can imagine. Not great working conditions but they are born into that job. The next vats were varying shades of colour. All the dyes were from plants, vegetables and totally organic. The hides are then dried and brushed depending on the requirements for the shoemakers and other tradesmen. The yellow dye is from saffron which is a lot cheaper here as it is grown down south . The red from poppies, the green from thyme and the blue from indigo. It was a great thing to see. 
We also saw the biggest Mosque as far as numbers inside the prayer hall, it held 20,00 and we also visited the oldest university. Children start school from the age of 3 where they learn to recite the Koran totally by heart and they learn the Arabic letters also. Then they start primary school from the age of 6. We had a traditional Moroccan Tagine and Harira for lunch where Mustava left us. We thought we could find our way back but got hopelessly lost and what did not help was the kids having fun with us and sending us down dead end streets. It is funny when you look back on it but the gang of kids increased all wanting their share of the dirhams to guide us out We eventually, after 1 and half hours of getting back to the same spot and much to the amusement of the shop keepers, found our way out to the main entrance. I wanted to hug it. Fes definitely had the most interesting old town of all we had seen. It was a good move having a guide or we would have not seen deep into the Moroccan way of life in Fes.
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