Fes: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Fes el-Bali, the old city, is the largest car-free urban area in the world: thousands of lanes running downhill to the river, where donkeys still carry the loads. It was founded by Idris I in 789 and grew under his son into the religious and learned capital of Morocco. Half a day; a licensed guide saves hours of being lost.
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A short history of Fes
In 789 Idris I founded a settlement on the bank of the Fez River, and his son Idris II expanded it into a proper city. Refugees from Córdoba and Kairouan settled there, and in 859 Fatima al-Fihri founded the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque, around which one of the oldest institutions of learning in the world grew up. Maimonides lived in Fez for several years after his family fled Spain. In the 13th century the Marinids built Fes el-Jdid beside the old city, and next to it the Mellah, the first Jewish quarter in Morocco, was built in the 15th century. In 1912 the treaty that made Morocco a French protectorate was signed in the city, and in 1981 the old city was declared a World Heritage Site.
The ten best sights in Fes
1Bab Bou JeloudThe blue gate into the old medina
2Bou Inania MadrasaCarved cedar and tiles of the 1350s
3Dar al-MaganaThe water clock, and the street of Maimonides
4Dar BathaA palace museum of Moroccan crafts
5Dar GlaouiA faded palace of a powerful pasha
6Nejjarine MuseumA carpenters’ caravanserai turned wood museum
7Moulay Idriss II ShrineThe tomb of the city’s founder; non-Muslims look from the door
8Al-QarawiyyinThe oldest working university; look in from the gates
9Al-Attarine MadrasaThe finest courtyard in Fes
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10Place R’cif
The square where taxis reach the medina
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Fes →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Fes:
Free walking tours in Fes
Down through the medina
Fes el-Bali, the old city, is the largest car-free urban area in the world: thousands of lanes running downhill to the river, where donkeys still carry the loads. It was founded by Idris I in 789 and grew under his son into the religious and learned capital of Morocco. Half a day; a licensed guide saves hours of being lost.
- Bab Bou Jeloud · The gate of 1913 into the medina, tiled blue on the outside — the colour of Fes — and green on the inside, the colour of Islam. Through it you look straight onto the minaret of the Bou Inania madrasa.
- Bou Inania Madrasa · A religious college built in the 1350s by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan, its courtyard covered with carved cedar, stucco and coloured tiles. It is one of the few religious buildings in Morocco that non-Muslims may enter.
- Dar al-Magana · Across the lane, a water clock of 1357 with thirteen wooden windows and brass bowls, which once struck the hours for the madrasa; how it worked is still not fully understood. Tradition says the house beside it was where Maimonides lived in Fes in the 1160s, after his family fled Córdoba.
- Talaa Kebira · The great slope, the main lane running down through the medina, lined with butchers, bakers, slipper-makers and spice sellers. Shout of balak — make way — means a donkey is behind you.
- Nejjarine Museum · A caravanserai of the eighteenth century, where merchants once stayed with their animals, now a museum of carved wood, beside a tiled public fountain. From its roof terrace the medina spreads in every direction.
- Moulay Idriss II Shrine · The tomb of Idris II, who made Fes his capital in the early ninth century and is its patron saint. Wooden bars across the lanes around it once marked a sanctuary where no animal could pass and anyone could take refuge from arrest.
Learning and leather
At the bottom of the medina are the oldest university in the world, the finest madrasa of Fes, the coppersmiths and the tanneries, whose smell reaches you before you see them. Two hours; the tanneries are best seen in the morning sun.
- Al-Qarawiyyin · Founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Kairouan, it is counted as the oldest university in the world still teaching. Its library, recently restored, is one of the oldest in the world; non-Muslims can look into the courtyard from the gates.
- Al-Attarine Madrasa · Built in the 1320s beside the spice market — attarine means perfume sellers — with a small courtyard where every surface is carved in cedar, plaster or tile. Students of the Qarawiyyin lived in the cells above until the twentieth century.
- Place Seffarine · A small square where coppersmiths hammer huge pots and cauldrons for weddings and feasts, under a plane tree, as they have for centuries; the library of the Qarawiyyin opens onto it.
- Chouara Tannery · Here hides are worked by hand as they were in the Middle Ages: soaked in vats of lime and pigeon droppings to soften them, then dyed in stone vats of colours from poppy, indigo, henna and saffron. You watch from the leather shops’ terraces, holding a sprig of mint against the smell.
- Place R’cif · The square by the river where the taxis can reach the bottom of the medina — the easy way out after walking down. Beyond the river lies the Andalusian quarter, founded by refugees from Córdoba in the ninth century.
- Borj Nord · A fort of the sixteenth century on the hill above the medina, now a museum of arms. From here, and from the Marinid tombs beyond, you see the whole bowl of Fes el-Bali at sunset, as the call to prayer rises from hundreds of mosques.
Fes Jdid and the Jews of Fes
In the thirteenth century the Marinid sultans built a new royal city, Fes Jdid, beside the old one, and in 1438 the Jews of Fes were moved beside the palace into the first mellah in Morocco — a word that came to mean every Jewish quarter in the country. One hour.
- Jnan Sbil · A garden of palms, bamboo and pools between the old and the new royal town, laid out for the sultans in the eighteenth century and opened to the public; a quiet break from the medina.
- Royal Palace · The royal palace of Fes, closed to visitors, but its gates — seven great doors of gilded brass set in tiled and carved arches — are one of the most photographed sights in Morocco.
- The Mellah · The houses of the Mellah open onto the street with wooden balconies and windows, unlike the inward-looking Muslim houses of the medina. The name is said to come from melh, salt, from the place where the quarter was built; tens of thousands of Jews lived here before most left for Israel and France.
- Ibn Danan Synagogue · A synagogue of the seventeenth century built by the Ibn Danan family, one of the great rabbinic families of Fes, restored with its carved wooden ark and tiled walls. Below it is a mikveh cut down to the groundwater.
- Jewish Cemetery · A hillside of white tombs. Here lies Solika Hatchuel, a young Jewish woman of Tangier executed in Fes in 1834 for refusing to convert to Islam, revered as a martyr and saint by Moroccan Jews, who still come to pray at her grave.
- Sefrou · A small walled town south of Fes, once so Jewish that it was called little Jerusalem, where Jews and Muslims lived for centuries side by side. It holds a cherry festival every June.
Getting to Fes and getting around
- Fès–Saïss Airport · Twenty-five minutes south by taxi
Cheap eats in Fes
Fes is the capital of Moroccan cooking: pastilla, a pie of flaky warqa pastry filled with pigeon or chicken, almonds and cinnamon, dusted with sugar; bowls of bissara, a split-pea soup with olive oil and cumin, for breakfast; harira at sunset; and msemen pancakes off the griddle. A bowl of bissara at a medina stall costs almost nothing.
- Talaa Kebira · Bissara and msemen on the main lane
- Bab Bou Jeloud · Food stalls inside the gate
- Place Seffarine · Mint tea among the coppersmiths
- Dar Glaoui · Pastilla in a riad restaurant
Museums in Fes
Fes keeps its crafts and its learning: museums of wood and craft, madrasas open to visitors, and palaces of the old elite.
- Nejjarine Museum · Carved wood
- Dar Batha · Moroccan crafts and blue Fes pottery
- Bou Inania Madrasa · The Marinid madrasa
- Borj Nord · The arms museum
- Volubilis · Roman mosaics
Nature and day trips near Fes
Fes sits in a bowl of olive-covered hills, with the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas an hour to the south.
- Jnan Sbil · The shaded garden
- Borj Nord · Sunset over the medina
- Sefrou · Cherry orchards and a waterfall
Things to do in Fes with kids
With children: donkeys in the lanes, the colourful tanneries, a garden to run in and Roman mosaics.
- Chouara Tannery · The colour vats
- Jnan Sbil · Room to run
- Volubilis · Ruins to explore
Holy places in Fes
Fes is the spiritual capital of Morocco — and for a thousand years one of the great centres of Jewish learning, from Maimonides to the rabbinic dynasties of the Mellah.
- Al-Qarawiyyin · The oldest university
- Moulay Idriss II Shrine · The founder’s tomb
- Ibn Danan Synagogue · The synagogue of the Mellah
- Jewish Cemetery · Solika the martyr
- Dar al-Magana · The house of Maimonides, by tradition
- Moulay Idriss Zerhoun · The holy town
Nightlife in Fes
Fes is conservative and quiet at night: dinner on a riad roof, Andalusian music in the old palaces, and in June the Festival of World Sacred Music.
- Dar Batha · Sacred music festival concerts
- Borj Nord · The call to prayer at sunset
- Bab Bou Jeloud · Evening by the blue gate
Frequently asked questions about Fes
What is there to see in Fes?
The top sights in Fes are Bab Bou Jeloud, Bou Inania Madrasa and Dar al-Magana. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Fes?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Fes without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Fes?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Fes, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Down through the medina.
How do you get to Fes and get around?
The main ways are Fès–Saïss Airport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Fes, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Fes that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Fes for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.