The old Medina of Fes (Fes el-Bali) is the oldest city in Morocco with more than 1,000 years history (established during the 8th century) and the first World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO in Morocco. Today, there are still 400,000 inhabitants living in the maze of the Medina with more than 8,000 narrow alleys.
The Green Medina
Green is the favourite color of Fes, as her largest Mosque is wearing a catchy green color and many doors are decorated in wood and green tiles.
Green is the holy color of Islamic countries, and that what makes Fes a center of religion and spirituality (where there are more than 200 big and small mosques within the Medina), as well as education (As Fes has claimed herself having the first university in the world, and today the university becomes one of the mosque for prayers) and quality handicrafts.
Cats and Dogs
I always like both cats and dogs however you can hardly spot a dog on the street but only cats. Cats are so common to Moroccan because they just think that dogs are dirty creatures and if you feed them with a plate of food, you have to wash the plate seven times (the number of time equal to seven days of a week). Cats are on the other hand, very clean creatures that they even clean the plate for you.
I am not sure if this is true or not but this is what the guide has told me. But in general as more of a cat person, I do think cats are really cleaner than dogs and I am so happy to see a lot of cats around the places.
Mohammad and Fatima
I always wonder why a lot of Arabs are being given the name Mohammad and today the guide has a clue for me. Mohammad is not only the name of the founder of Islam and it also means “praiseworthy” which make the name very popular among parents to give this name to their first born son. Yes, this name only for eldest son in the family so if you have a Moroccan friend called Mohammad then he must be the eldest brother in his family.
On the other hand, Fatima is another name very popular for girls in Morocco. Fatima is the daughter of Islamic prophet Mohammad who was married to Ali (who later on became the spiritual leader of the Shia branch of the Islam). She had great influence because of her father and her husband in the Islamic history which people shows admiration to her moral and physical characteristics.
The hands of Fatima, Hamsa, is always seen on the doors of Moroccan houses. Hamsa is a symbol of luck but why? Of course there are a lot of versions for this but the version of the guide told me was easily understood. Fatima put her hands on the shoulder of his husband Ali when his husband was about to go for a war and the war turned out to be a success and the Moroccan nowadays believe the hands of Fatima will bring good luck to their homes. Voila.
Fountain
Fountains are very common around the corner of alleys and they are some what the iconic signs of the Medina of Fes. Thanks to the great water engineers of the old days that Fes is supplied with fresh water through these fountains. Nowadays some neighbourhoods still obtain fresh water from these public fountains while some are no longer used and become decorations along the pale yellowish alley.
Wall with Graffti?
Nice roses, trunk and horse huh? These symbols actually represent different parties in the parliament of Morocco as there are still a relatively large population with illiteracy. And during elections, each party will put up their slogans or posters to publicize themselves to the public within each area assigned to them.
Interestingly, the way they outline the area for different parties is so similar to what we did in the University for putting up posters on the wall in the campus for different societies.
Chouwara Tanneries
This is a must visit sight in Fes because Chouwara Tanneries is the oldest and most iconic tanneries in Morocco (and still in operation) for producing Moroccan leather in traditional way which has been last for a millennium.
Quality Handicrafts
It’s quite true (though the guide insisted) that Fes is selling handicrafts including leather, scarfs, carpets, or may be jewellery with the best quality in Morocco (forget about lousy Marrakech, don’t buy any souvenirs if you want something good). So if you are thinking to get something worthy and really “made in Morocco” (instead of “made in China” or “made in India” which you can find a lot in Marrakech), go to Fes. Of course, bargaining is always the game you have to play here, where people are so used with the Jewish way of trading.
This is sometime a good point about having guided walking tour in the city because the guide will provide you quite a lot of insights and reasons to the local culture and history about a place or a spot that you may never know by reading books. (Of course, you should be able to prompt as many questions as possible and open the mouth of the guide).
(By the way, I tried to put it into Chinese, but it’s too hard for me to do translation as a lot of information are being provided in English)
Day 009
CK 好小器! :p