Fes el-Bali, Morocco: Lost in the Medina Maze, Bou Inania & Al-Qarawiyyin - Don't Get Fazed!

Khrachfiyine Bridge over Oued Bou Khrareb at Souk Sabbaghine in Fes el-Bali.

We reached Fes el-Bali at about 5 PM on July 15, 2023, after our Merzouga-to-Fes road trip through the Ziz Valley and Atlas Mountains. That road day had begun after our Erg Chebbi desert camp and sunrise dromedary ride; it ended at the edge of a city where the useful vehicles were feet, handcarts and a good memory.

The medina of Fes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose core developed from the Idrisid city founded around the turn of the ninth century and reached another major architectural peak under the Marinids. Our visit covered the evening of July 15 and most of July 16. The full walking map shows the alleys, gates, madrasas, markets, fountains and shrines that turned a short distance across town into a very long list of left turns.

Fes el-Bali, Morocco — Post Summary

This two-day Fes el-Bali visit begins with a handcart carrying our luggage through the old medina to Dar Mfaddel, then follows a guided walking route from Bab Bou Jeloud through Dar al-Magana, Bou Inania Madrasa, Bab Rcif, the dyers and coppersmiths, Al-Qarawiyyin, Moulay Idriss II and Funduq al-Nejjarine. It ends with markets, lunch and a train from Fes to Casablanca.

What's Covered
🧳	Arrival in Fes el-Bali and the Luggage Cart — Batha drop-off, handcart and the walk to Dar Mfaddel
🏠	Dar Mfaddel and Our First Evening in the Medina — rooftop room, family dinner and guide arrangements
🚪	Batha and Bab Bou Jeloud — street signs, Independence Monument and Blue Gate
🕰️	Dar al-Magana and Bou Inania Madrasa — medieval clock facade and Marinid architecture
🎨	Bab Rcif, Souk Sabbaghine and Place Seffarine — eastern gate, dyers and coppersmith district
📚	Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University — entrance views, markets and Al-Attarine Madrasa
🕌	Moulay Idriss II and Nejjarine Fountain — shrine lanes and public fountain
🏨	Funduq al-Nejjarine, markets, lunch and departure — museum, Talaa Kebira and train to Casablanca

On July 15, 2023, we arrived in Fes from Merzouga by passenger vehicle and continued on foot into Fes el-Bali. The next morning we walked the medina with our guide, Ahmed, crossing it from the Batha side toward Bab Rcif and then looping through its markets and monuments before leaving by train for Casablanca. The road journey had ended; the navigation problem had simply become three-dimensional.

Route: Batha / Rue Sidi El Khayat → Dar Mfaddel → Agoumi Zkak Lahjar → Bab Bou Jeloud → Talaa Kebira / Talaa Sghira → Dar al-Magana → Bou Inania Madrasa → Bab Rcif → Souk Sabbaghine → Place Seffarine → Al-Qarawiyyin → Moulay Idriss II → Nejjarine → Gare de Fes

Method: walking, with a hand-pushed luggage cart on arrival and departure

Timing: evening arrival July 15; guided walking tour July 16; train departure afterward

Themes: medina navigation, Marinid architecture, markets and crafts, shrines, fountains, merchant funduqs and everyday street life

Route at a Glance

1. Batha and the edge of Fes el-Bali — luggage-cart pickup
2. Dar Mfaddel — check-in, roof terrace and first evening
3. Batha to Bab Bou Jeloud — guided morning walk
4. Dar al-Magana and Bou Inania Madrasa
5. Talaa Sghira to Bab Rcif
6. Souk Sabbaghine and Place Seffarine
7. Al-Qarawiyyin and Al-Attarine Madrasa
8. Moulay Idriss II and Nejjarine Fountain
9. Funduq al-Nejjarine and the Wood Arts Museum
10. Talaa Kebira markets and Nejjarine Restaurant
11. Gare de Fes — train to Casablanca

Arrival in Fes el-Bali and the Luggage Cart

Our driver dropped us beside Batha Fountain near Cinema Cafe, outside the medina wall. Cars could go no farther, so our luggage changed departments. Men with small two-wheeled carts moved bags through alleys too narrow for ordinary vehicles, and we hired one for the walk to Dar Mfaddel. After carrying our own luggage across Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech, this was a service we understood immediately and supported enthusiastically.

Into Fes el-Bali Luggage carts and the first narrow alleys on the walk from Batha toward Dar Mfaddel.

The cart cost about US$3 on the mostly downhill trip inward. The later uphill return cost about US$5, which was a perfectly reasonable demonstration that gravity has a business model. More important, the cart handler knew the route. We followed him through covered passages, residential lanes and intersections that often looked interchangeable to us.

Learning the alleys Covered passages, residential lanes and street-level details as the cart led us deeper into the medina.

We had walked old quarters in Greece, Turkey and Marrakech, but Fes el-Bali was a different navigational animal. The streets narrowed, widened, bent, dropped and occasionally seemed to reconsider what they had been doing. We began photographing turns as memory aids, although after enough turns the photographs themselves started requiring directions.

Medina street life Daily life, decorative details and increasingly narrow passages on our first walk through Fes el-Bali.

The medina’s irregular form is part of its historic character. UNESCO protects Fes as an unusually complete historic Arab-Muslim town, and the walk made the practical side of that description obvious: this was still a place of homes, shops, workshops and daily errands, rather than a preserved set waiting for visitors.

Still following the cart More turns, walls and vertical passages before Dar Mfaddel finally came within reach.

Dar Mfaddel and Our First Evening in the Medina

Dar Mfaddel announced itself with a plain door, then opened into a richly decorated interior courtyard. Hicham and his wife ran the house and greeted us with homemade snacks and mint tea while we finished the check-in paperwork. Their English was limited, our French was hardly a diplomatic asset, and hospitality did most of the translation.

Inside Dar Mfaddel The plain entrance opened into a richly decorated courtyard with traditional seating and upper-level woodwork.

Our room was on the roof terrace. Reaching it meant a final staircase with narrow turning steps that were smaller than our feet in places. Hicham carried our bags up, sparing us the experiment of learning whether luggage rolls downhill faster than travelers.

Up to the roof Upper galleries and the steep final staircase leading to our roof-terrace room.

At the top, the room opened directly onto the terrace. It was air-conditioned, had a small attached bathroom with hot water, and felt exceptionally civilized after the previous night in the Sahara.

Our roof-terrace room Room, terrace and rooftop views across Fes el-Bali from Dar Mfaddel.

Later we walked out along derb Agoumi Zkak Lahjar. Near the intersection stood Fontaine el-Hassaniya. We had seen neighborhood fountains in our Marrakech medina visit, and here the fountain became one of the landmarks we used to recognize the route home.

Evening on Agoumi Zkak Lahjar Fontaine el-Hassaniya and the streets around Dar Mfaddel as shops began closing.

We had planned dinner at Dar Khabya, but a local boy told us it was closed and led us instead into his family home and up to a rooftop restaurant. We never caught the restaurant name, but we kept its map coordinates. The family ran the place together, the children spoke excellent English, and dinner came with a wide view across the roofs and minarets of Fes el-Bali.

Dinner above the medina The family-run rooftop restaurant and evening views across Fes el-Bali.

Dinner for the two of us came to roughly US$25. Short on dirhams, we asked whether the family could change a US$100 bill. One of the daughters first worried that we wanted to complain about the meal; relief arrived as soon as we explained that the problem was merely arithmetic. Her father and uncle joined the discussion, and we left with dinner settled and 750 dirhams in change.

By about 10 PM we had also settled another matter: walking alone the next day would be an ambitious hobby. We called Hicham, who arranged a guide for 9 AM at US$50 for up to six hours. The day had started in Erg Chebbi and ended with us hiring professional help to walk around our hotel neighborhood. Fes was making its point efficiently.

Morning Walk from Batha to Bab Bou Jeloud

Fes el-Bali was quiet at dawn. A man on a bicycle came through with loaves of bread, delivered a bag to Dar Mfaddel and continued along the alley. A resident cat appeared to regard this as a public service that needed inspection.

Fes at dawn Quiet alleys, the morning bread delivery and a resident cat beginning the day.

After breakfast, Ahmed arrived on time and led us west toward Batha. He explained one wonderfully useful piece of medina signage: the hexagonal sign for Derb Smiyet Sidi marked a dead end, while the rectangular sign for Derb Sidi Ahmed Chaoui marked a through route. That did not make us local navigators, but it gave us a fighting chance.

Walking with Ahmed Our guided tour began with a useful lesson in medina street signs and morning navigation.

Near the edge of the medina we stopped at the monument to Morocco’s January 11, 1944 Independence Manifesto. The display reproduces the document in Maghrebi script; the manifesto demanded an end to colonial rule and the restoration of Moroccan independence. January 11 remains a national holiday.

Toward the western gate Morning streets, Heritage Boutique Hotel and the monument to Morocco’s 1944 Independence Manifesto.

From there we reached Bab Bou Jeloud. The monumental gate visitors see today dates to 1913, during the French Protectorate, while an older and plainer gate survives nearby. Its outer face is blue and its medina-facing side is green. We kept the colors as observed facts and left the grand theories about what each color supposedly means to the souvenir vendors.

Bab Bou Jeloud The blue outer face, busy entrance and green medina-facing side of Fes’s monumental gate.

Dar al-Magana and Bou Inania Madrasa

Inside Bab Bou Jeloud we followed the covered market toward Talaa Kebira. The two main streets, Talaa Kebira and Talaa Sghira, became useful reference lines whenever the smaller alleys began improvising.

Talaa Kebira Covered market passages leading from Bab Bou Jeloud toward Dar al-Magana and Bou Inania.

On Talaa Kebira, Dar al-Magana faces Bou Inania Madrasa. The clock facade dates to 1357 and still shows twelve upper openings, projecting beams and the positions where brass bowls once hung. Its original hydraulic and weight-driven mechanism is no longer fully understood. The surviving building is therefore both a clock and a very elegant medieval troubleshooting ticket. The local preservation body has documented a Dar al-Magana restoration project.

Dar al-Magana Three views of the surviving 14th-century clock facade on Talaa Kebira.

The older photograph made the missing bowls easier to understand because the complete row is still visible beneath the openings. We kept it as evidence of what the facade once carried rather than pretending the lost mechanism had suddenly become obvious to us.

An older view of Dar al-Magana while the brass bowls were still present.

Across the street, Bou Inania Madrasa was built between 1350 and 1355 under Marinid Sultan Abu Inan. It combined a madrasa with a congregational mosque, which helps explain the minaret rising above the complex. We entered from Talaa Kebira into the courtyard, where zellij, carved stucco, cedar work and water are packed into a remarkably small footprint.

Bou Inania Madrasa courtyard, built during the Marinid period.

The wide courtyard panorama gave us the overall form before the smaller details took over. From there, the minaret, cedar screens and water channel could be seen as parts of one compact complex rather than a stack of isolated decorations.

Bou Inania courtyard Minaret, cedar screens, zellij and the water channel around the madrasa courtyard.

The prayer hall remained off-limits to us, but we could see it from the courtyard, including the decorated mihrab area. The water channel along the prayer-hall side and the bridges across it made the courtyard feel less like a static monument and more like a building designed around movement.

Bou Inania prayer hall Views toward the prayer hall, mihrab and interior arches from the visitor-accessible courtyard.

We could not roam every part of Bou Inania, yet the courtyard alone justified slowing down. After the calm of the madrasa, the market outside resumed immediately. Fes rarely bothered with a gradual transition.

Back into the bazaar Covered market lanes resumed immediately outside Bou Inania.

Talaa Sghira to Bab Rcif

We continued east on Talaa Sghira, passing Abu al-Hasan Mosque and its closed entrance. Nearby, Talaa Saghira Fountain added another public-water landmark to the route. We kept moving rather than turning every doorway into a thesis.

Along Talaa Sghira Abu al-Hasan Mosque, Talaa Saghira Fountain, prickly pears and a timely cold-drink stop.

A vendor on Talaa Sghira was selling prickly pears from Opuntia ficus-indica. The cactus originated in Mexico and spread widely around the Mediterranean after the Columbian exchange. In July, the useful local fact was simpler: the fruit was in season, the cart was colorful, and the tiny spines encouraged respectful handling.

Side stops in the medina A luxury riad entrance and Muhammad Al-Qura School along the route east.

From there we worked through Derb Sefli, Rue Sidi Mohammed Belhaj and Rue Seyaje. Muhammad Al-Qura School sat along the route as the alleys began dropping toward the eastern side of the medina.

Derb Sefli to Dar Siaj The guided route through Derb Sefli, Rue Sidi Mohammed Belhaj and the top of the downhill lanes.

Past the named streets, the route narrowed into lanes that were absent from Google Maps when we walked them. We later submitted map edits, but Ahmed needed no software; he simply kept turning downhill toward Derb Rechm.

The unmapped descent A sequence of narrow lanes descending from Dar Siaj toward Derb Rechm.

Two metal knockers on one house door caught our attention. Their exact convention was unclear to us, so we kept the observation simple: one old door, two knockers, and no need to give either one a sociology degree.

Derb Rechm The route reached Derb Rechm, where an old doorway with two metal knockers caught our attention.

The lanes grew busier as we approached Rue Rahbat Tben and Bab Rcif. Produce sellers and market stalls replaced the quieter residential passages. Bab Rcif then opened onto the broad square on the eastern side of the medina, with the R’cif Mosque minaret above the surrounding roofs.

Approaching Bab Rcif Residential lanes gave way to produce stalls, market traffic and the eastern gate at Place Rcif.

Souk Sabbaghine and Place Seffarine

From Bab Rcif we turned toward Souk Sabbaghine, the dyers market. Cloth, wool and yarn hung around work areas where dyeing was still visibly part of the local economy. Sabbaghine Fountain supplied water nearby, and we watched a worker fill buckets before returning to the vats.

Souk Sabbaghine Dyers, vats, hanging cloth and the neighborhood fountain in Fes el-Bali’s dyers market.

Khrachfiyine Bridge crossed Oued Bou Khrareb beside the market. The bridge gave us views up and down the watercourse and then fed us into Rue Seffarine toward the coppersmith district. This was also where the hero photograph at the top of the post came from; Fes had finally caught up with its own cover image.

Across Khrachfiyine Bridge Views along Oued Bou Khrareb and the route from the bridge into Rue Seffarine.

Place Seffarine announced itself by sound before architecture. Metalworkers hammered trays, pots and other copperware around the small square, producing the sort of percussion section that does not require tickets and does not offer an intermission.

Place Seffarine to Al-Qarawiyyin The coppersmith district and final lanes leading from Seffarine toward Al-Qarawiyyin.

Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University

A short walk from Seffarine brought us to Al-Qarawiyyin. Non-Muslim visitors could not enter the mosque, so we viewed the courtyard and interior from the doorway. The institution is traditionally associated with Fatima al-Fihriya and the year 859. Guinness World Records recognizes Al-Qarawiyyin as the oldest existing, continually operating educational institution.

Al-Qarawiyyin Visitor information and doorway views into the mosque and university complex.

The lanes around Al-Qarawiyyin were as commercial as they were historical. Art, argan products, herbal goods, carpets, jewelry and clothing filled small shops, often within a few steps of the mosque complex. We were still dressed in clothes bought earlier in Morocco, which gave salespeople useful evidence that we were not immune to shopping.

Shops around Al-Qarawiyyin Art, argan products, carpets and jewelry packed into the surrounding market lanes.

The shopping continued from carpets into jewelry and clothing without any ceremonial handoff. We mostly looked, which is the safest possible sentence to write while surrounded by things designed to fit into luggage.

Jewelry and clothing Close views of jewelry and clothing displays near Al-Qarawiyyin.

Al-Attarine Madrasa stood nearby, another Marinid building tucked into the dense streets. We had already visited Ben Youssef Madrasa during our Marrakech story and crossed the High Atlas on our Sahara adventure, so by this stage Morocco had given us a useful comparison set: different cities, different madrasas, same ability to make a doorway consume several minutes of attention.

Al-Attarine Madrasa Two views of the Marinid madrasa beside the Al-Qarawiyyin quarter.

From Al-Attarine we worked back toward Talaa Kebira. The pedestrian traffic and shopfronts quickly took over again, and the quieter monument stop disappeared behind us after only a few turns.

Back on Talaa Kebira Shops and pedestrian traffic on one of Fes el-Bali’s main market streets.

Moulay Idriss II and Nejjarine Fountain

Our route next reached the shrine complex of Moulay Idriss II, a ruler closely associated with the early development of Fes. Non-Muslims could not enter the shrine, so we stayed in the surrounding lanes and viewed the entrances from outside.

Moulay Idriss II An ornate shrine doorway and the hanging wooden barrier in the surrounding lane.

Two map views of the interior are available here and here; our own visit remained firmly on the threshold. From there Derb Sidi Moussa led us toward Place Nejjarine.

Around the shrine Exterior details and the green-roofed skyline of the Moulay Idriss II complex.

Nejjarine Fountain stands beside the former merchant funduq. The fountain is a 19th-century addition, richly faced with zellij beneath a carved wooden canopy. Its location beside the funduq made the next stop almost impossible to miss, even by our standards.

Toward Nejjarine Derb Sidi Moussa led us from the shrine area to Nejjarine Fountain.

Funduq al-Nejjarine and the Wood Arts Museum

Funduq al-Nejjarine was built in 1711 as a merchant inn and storage building. Its history belongs to early 18th-century Fes and the city’s own merchant networks. A broader restoration program has also renovated and restored several historic funduqs in Fes.

Entering Funduq al-Nejjarine The 1711 merchant funduq from its street entrance into the central courtyard.

The building now houses the Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts. The central courtyard, upper galleries and former rooms made the old commercial layout easy to read even with museum displays occupying the spaces. Woodwork was the subject, but the building itself kept stealing glances.

The funduq courtyard Upper galleries, former merchant rooms and restored woodwork around the courtyard.

The museum rooms occupied spaces that had once served merchants and travelers. Moving through the exhibits made it easy to keep noticing the building itself, especially the timber balconies and the way each level opened back toward the courtyard.

Nejjarine Museum Museum information, exhibits and rooms inside the restored funduq.

From the roof terrace we could look back across Fes el-Bali toward the green roofs and minarets. At street level the medina often felt like a corridor system; from above it became a tight field of roofs, terraces and courtyards.

From the roof Rooftop views across Fes el-Bali from Funduq al-Nejjarine.

Talaa Kebira Markets and Lunch

We worked back toward Talaa Kebira through the market lanes. Bellagine souk was associated with locks and wooden clogs used in hammams. The bath-house connection reminded us of Roman bathing systems from our Egypt story, including the older idea of floors heated by hypocausts. The comparison stayed at the level of heating technology; Fes did not need us to turn every hammam into Rome.

Talaa Kebira and Bellagine The return walk through Bellagine souk and the market lanes of Talaa Kebira.

Then came lamps, jewelry and enough decorative metalwork to make airline baggage limits feel personally hostile. We browsed rather than attempting to solve that problem.

Lamps and jewelry Lamp, jewelry and decorative metalwork displays in a medina shop.

Lunch was at Nejjarine Restaurant down Derb Dermami Nejjarine. Fruit arrived first, followed by the familiar Moroccan combination of salad, tagine or couscous and dessert. The bill again landed around US$13 per person, close to what we had paid on our earlier Marrakech-to-Ouarzazate road day. Morocco had somehow made a three-course meal feel like a stable unit of currency.

Lunch at Nejjarine Restaurant The alley, restaurant entrance and fruit starter before the main meal.

Leaving Fes for Casablanca

After the walking tour and lunch, the medina finally released us back into a world with timetables. Gare de Fes felt spacious enough to require no guide at all. We had time to look around the station before boarding the train south.

Gare de Fes Outside and inside the railway station before our train to Casablanca.

A Hindi copy of Tintin in Congo at the station cafe provided one last small travel puzzle before departure. It was not the reading material we expected to find in a Moroccan railway station, so it earned a closer look.

A Hindi edition of Tintin in Congo at Gare de Fes.

Then the departure board supplied the information we actually needed, and our Casablanca train arrived. After two days of turning corners in Fes el-Bali, sitting still while the country moved past the window felt almost suspicious.

Southbound Departure board, station hall and the train that carried us from Fes toward Casablanca.

This Fes stop was where our 2023 Morocco journey temporarily stopped measuring progress in road miles. We moved by cart and on foot through a medina where a short line on a map could contain a fountain, a madrasa, a market and several opportunities to become unsure of north. The next leg returned us to a straight line: the train south to Casablanca.

Next stop: our Fes-to-Casablanca train ride and Casablanca photo story.