Fes el-Bali: down the Talaa Kebira to the tanneries, over the river to al-Andalus

Fes

A guide for the first three hours to learn the spine of the medina, then the far bank on your own, and the Merenid tombs for the sunset call.

1. 7:30 am 1

   Meet a licensed guide at Bab Bou Jeloud, 07:30Fes

   Around 300 MAD for a half day through your riad, and in Fes it is worth it in a way it is not in Marrakech - 9,000 lanes, no grid, and the hills mean you cannot navigate by the sun. Agree up front: three hours, no shops, no cooperative, no carpet. A guide who resists that clause will resist it all morning. Ask for his licence card; the real ones carry a brass badge. Start at 07:30 and you get the mule deliveries, which is the medina actually working.

   3 min walk · 150 m
2. 8:30 am 2

   Bou Inania Madrasa before the light gets flatFes

   20 MAD, cash only, and it closes to visitors around the midday prayer - the morning slot is not optional. It is the only madrasa in Fes with a working minaret and a full mosque, so parts are roped off. Look up at the carved cedar frieze above the zellige rather than at the courtyard floor everyone photographs. Across the lane, the ruined water clock is worth two minutes.

3. 9:45 am 3

   Down the Talaa Kebira to Nejjarine squareFes

   The Talaa Kebira runs downhill from the Blue Gate all the way to the Qarawiyyin, so as long as you are descending you are on it. Museum of Wooden Arts, 20 MAD, and honestly the exhibits are secondary: pay it for the roof terrace, which is the only clean overhead view of the carpenters' square and its mosaic fountain. When a mule comes, get flat against the wall on the uphill side, not the downhill.

4. 11:15 am 4

   Al-Attarine Madrasa, and the door of the QarawiyyinFes

   20 MAD, cash. Smaller than Bou Inania and better: the zellige is finer and there are usually six people in it. Take the stairs to the student cells and the roof. Non-Muslims cannot enter the Qarawiyyin mosque and university next door, but the doorways on Place Seffarine are open and you can stand and look straight down the prayer hall from the threshold, which is most of it.

   3 min walk · 250 m
5. 12:15 pm 5

   Chouara tannery from a leather shop's terraceFes

   There is no ticket. Every terrace over the pits belongs to a leather shop, and the deal is honest if you name it: you go up, you look, you come down, you leave 50 MAD and you do not buy a jacket. They will hand you a sprig of mint at the stairs - hold it under your nose, the white pits are pigeon droppings and quicklime and it is not a joke. Late morning is when the dyers are actually in the vats; by 15:00 you are looking at coloured water.

   10 min walk · 750 m
6. 1:30 pm 6

   Lunch in the courtyard at The Ruined GardenFes

   Built in the ruins of a collapsed house, open to the sky, and the shade in there is about eight degrees cooler than the lane outside - which in June is the difference between a good afternoon and going back to the riad. The Moroccan small plates rather than the tagine. If you want the slow-cooked lamb mechoui you have to order it a day ahead.

   8 min walk · 600 m
7. 3:30 pm 7

   Across the river into the Andalusian quarterFes

   Cross the Oued Fes at Rcif and climb. This half of the old city was settled by families from Cordoba and it is residential, steeper and almost empty of visitors - no souvenir lane, no touts, just doors and children and the odd bakery oven. The Andalusian mosque's monumental gate is the landmark to climb toward. Go up until the lanes stop, then look back over the whole medina from someone's roofline.

   13 min walk · 1.0 km
8. 6:30 pm 8

   Petit taxi to the Merenid Tombs for the sunset callFes

   Red petit taxi from Bab Guissa, about 30 MAD, and tell him to wait or agree a pickup - there is nothing up there. The tombs themselves are broken walls. What you came for is the moment the light goes and the adhan comes up off the medina from every minaret at once, out of sync, from below you. Bring a layer; the hill has wind the medina does not.