Custom

Billy in front of entrance to the carpenter's mosque.
p>From the entrance of the hotel, we head straight and enter a world of unbelievable sights, sounds and smells. We go from being in a hot, sunny street to a labyrinth of cool, covered, narrow alleyways. We pass by road signs designed for animal carts for there are no cars allowed inside the walls of the medina. They would not fit on the narrow streets. We turn right and are in the produce area. The booths that line the dirt alleys are filled with fresh fruits and vegetables that are brought in by pack donkeys from the farms that surround Fez. On the ground in the middle of the road are piles of rotten vegetables that are giving off putrid smells of fermentation. The first wave of nausea hits.

Further down we enter the butcher's aisle. Raw meat hangs by hooks over the counters of the booths. Behind and in front of the counters are live chickens, hung from their feet, and bleeding goats heads with their tongues hanging out. The smells are awful at times and as we pass a particularly rotten smell, the second wave of nausea hits.

We turn right down another corridor. When the corridor ends, we are in the clothing area. Modern and ethnic clothes fill every shop. Many of the modern looking clothes are fakes of popular brands. Nike, Puma, Calvin Klein, Polo, Izod, Harley Davidson are just a few of the brands we see.

We walk through the streets, often pausing to peer into the doorways of the five story buildings we are walking between. Inside these doorways, there are more tunnels and staircases that twist and turn and finally lead to the homes of these shoppers and shopkeepers.

We stop at one of these doorways and go up the twisting marble steps and through an elaborate doorway. We emerge in a huge tiled room. The roof is 30 feet above our heads and a clear plastic covering allows filtered green light to illuminate this huge room. Halfway up the wall is a terrace that marks the second story of this house. We realize that we are actually standing in a covered courtyard. A beautiful fountain is built into the wall. Lining the walls and hanging from the terraces are elaborate carpets of all colors, patterns and sizes. The man of the house/carpet shop begins to tell us about the house. He tells us that we are standing in the man of the house's area. In the days of harems, the man lived in one part of the house and the wives lived in another. Every 24 hours a different wife would be allowed to serve him in his part of the house. The man had to give equal treatment to every wife or there would be jealousy. Our guide explained to us that this was very hard on the man. Keeping one wife happy is hard but four is impossible. Now Moroccans cannot have more than one wife unless they have a different house for each of them. This is much too expensive for the average Moroccan, so harems are not so common anymore.

He leads us into the women's section of the house which is also four walls surrounding a courtyard with rooms on the second floor. He sits us down on a plush couch with many pillows and serves us mint tea. He then proceeds with the highly effective Moroccan sales pitch. First he dispels all of our excuses for not buying a carpet before we even voice them. They accept credit cards, they have carpet-carrying cases or they will ship the carpet directly to your house. He explains the quality and craftwomanship of the rugs and then he displays them. He begins by displaying many different types of rugs. Then he asks us to choose the ones we like. When we do, he takes away the carpets we don't like, sets aside the ones we do, and brings more in the colors and patterns we like. This goes on for at least four sets of carpets. When we fell that we have seen enough, he redisplays the carpets that we have set aside and allows us to inspect them. Now is the time when we are supposed to choose the carpets that we wish to buy. I choose to wait but my brother buys a Berber rug (It was a very good sales pitch!). The man allows us to take pictures and even allows us to go on the roof to take pictures of Fez.
We leave this amazingly cool house and move back into the hot streets of the medina. Yet, the streets in the medina are still much cooler than those outside. The construction of the medina is its own cooling system, as are the tiles and high ceilings of the house we have just been in.
We head into the carpenter's section, stopping to admire the Carpenter's Mosque, Which has elaborate woodwork. In the carpenters area there are young and old fashioning wood carvings, engravings etc with primitive chisels and mallets. Yet, the work is beautiful. The shavings from the woodwork are gathered and taken to an underground furnace, which provides heat for the public bathhouse.
We enter a small frightening doorway, which we have to duck into, and end up in a room full of weavers. The men expertly work the looms at which they sit, shooting the shuttle back and forth in perfect rhythm. We are shown how they change the thread colors and rhythm to create patterns in the cloth.
After we leave the weavers, we step into a small doorway, which opens into a bakery. Here we see a makeshift counter, shelves to hold bread, and large furnaces over a dirt floor. The average Moroccan in the medina doesn't have an oven in their home, so they prepare the bread dough at home and then bring it to the bakery to be cooked. The people in the bakery know everyone in the neighborhood. We are told that they are better than the CIA if you are trying to locate someone.
We twist and turn through alleyways. Small rays of light filter through the straw roofs that cover the streets of the medina. Men sweep the dirt streets. From behind we hear "Balak! Balak!" and we move to the side as a donkey drawn cart rushes by with its heavy load. The smells shift from the horrible smells of rot to the sweet smells of flowers and pastries. People walk by greeting friends with "Salaam wallikum (peace be with you)" and kisses on both cheeks. Men walk by hand in hand and women arm in arm. Children run by shouting "Bonjour" and laughing. Shopkeepers call for us to come in to their shops to buy their "high-quality goods."
Soon we are at another doorway, unmarked like every other doorway. We enter and ascend three flights of stairs. We then enter a room, which is filled with leather goods from purses to leather jackets. We are told that we are in the tannery and are led out to the terrace to witness how leather is prepared. We look down and see, three stories below us, men and boys working in vats of all colors. At least 150 tubs are cut into the stone below, holding lyme and dyes (red, yellow, black, and green). The dyes are all natural. The red is from poppies, the yellow from saffron, the green from mint, and the black from something I didn't hear. The lyme takes the hair off the skin and piles of wool lay to one side. The leather is dyed and then laid on the rooftops to dry. We watch the men wading in the dye and working the color into the leather. Without the protection of the medina, the sun is very hot and soon we go back into the building.
We go up to the top floor and enter another room filled with leather goods. The man working tries desperately to get us to buy ANYTHING. We cannot look interested in any one object or he will hound us to buy it. Billy is interested in a pair of slippers. The man tells him the price is 300dr (). Billy buys them for 120dr ().
The day is getting late and soon the shops will be closing for lunch. We find ourselves walking through aisles of ceremonial goods. There are bridal chairs, in which the women are carried to their wedding ceremony. There are also beautiful saddles and harnesses that are worn by Arabian horses during "Fantasia."
We come upon an opening, a small clearing in the tangle of streets. Here is where they create brass work. Trays, plates, pots, decorations etc are all cut from sheets of brass and welded and shaped by hand from primitive tools. We watch men banging huge pots out with mallets. A boy cuts a tray out from a sheet of brass that will later be shaped and carved with beautiful designs.
As we move from the brass work area, we begin to pass closed shops. From 2pm to 4pm the medina shuts down for lunch. We pass by an elaborate mosque and are told that this was the first Moroccan University and that it was a woman who paid for its creation. Her name was Fatima, the daughter of _____, and she is highly revered all over Morocco. It is her hand that is recreated in jewelry and ornaments all over Morocco. Her hand is said to bring good luck.
We are able to go into another university for 10dr. The place is small and abandoned but it still contains beautiful plaster and woodwork. The windows of the dorms that look over the courtyard are covered with a cross work of wood, which allowed women to look out without being seen.
We leave the university and make our way to the gate, which will lead us out of the medina. Over five hours time we have twisted our way through five miles of labyrinth and seen things that we know we will never be able to really explain. The wonders of the Fez medina must be experienced! Go!