Things to do in Fes

Fes el-Bali, the old medina, is one of the largest car-free urban areas anywhere. Goods move by donkey and handcart. The city dates from the late eighth century.

The medina is a slope

It grew around a river and a mosque. Al-Qarawiyyin dates from 859 and is widely counted the world's oldest continuously running place of higher learning. Non-Muslims see it through the doorways.

Almost everything hangs off two lanes running downhill.

• Bab Boujeloud — the main gate, blue tiles outside and green within, and the top of both lanes.
• Talaa Kebira and Talaa Seghira — the big climb and the small one, market the whole way down.
• Bou Inania and Al-Attarine — two madrasas of carved cedar, stucco and zellij, both open to non-Muslims.
• Chouara tannery — stone vats of lime and dye, seen from the leather shops above, mint handed over at the door.
• Fes el-Jdid — the newer walled quarter, with the Mellah and the brass gates of the royal palace.
• The Merenid tombs — ruins on the hill north of the walls, and the place to watch the medina at dusk.

A city of guilds

Fes is a craft city more than a monument city. Workshops run in guild order. Brass at Seffarine, pottery at Ain Nokbi, weavers on their own lanes.

Most of them take visitors, and the point of a guide here is direction rather than history.

The road south

Nearly everything sold from Fes leaves the city. Merzouga is closer from here than from Marrakesh. Two days out and back is the standard, or three that finish in Marrakesh.

The road climbs over the Middle Atlas past Azrou. It then drops down the Ziz valley into palm country. Volubilis and Meknes make an easier day west.

Practical

• Getting lost. Unavoidable and mostly harmless. The medina slopes, so downhill leads to the river and the Qarawiyyin, uphill to a gate and a taxi.
• The old line. Being told the tannery is closed today is an opening, not a fact. So is the boy who walks ahead and then asks to be paid.
• Weather. Inland and enclosed: summer afternoons past 38C, winter nights near freezing, and riads built against the heat rather than the cold.
• Luggage. No car reaches most riads, so a porter with a barrow meets you at the gate. When someone shouts balak, stand flat against the wall.
• Getting here. Trains take about four hours from Tangier or from Casablanca, and the station is out in the new town.
• Friday. The medina thins at midday prayers and many workshops shut for the afternoon.