Give Fes three days. The first belongs to Talaa Kebira, walked downhill from Bab Bou Jeloud, taking in the Bou Inania madrasa, Place Seffarine and the Chouara tannery terraces on the way. The second is Fes el-Jdid, the Mellah and the Jnan Sbil gardens. Use the third for Meknes and the Roman mosaics at Volubilis, both an hour west.
Fes is the oldest of Morocco's imperial cities and the least diluted. The medina is a UNESCO site of roughly 9,000 lanes with no cars in most of them, three working tanneries, and a university that has been teaching since 859.
Three tanneries still work in the medina and Chouara is the big one: a courtyard of stone vats where hides are limed, scraped and dyed by hand. There is no ticket. The viewing terraces belong to the leather shops that ring the yard, so you climb through one to look down.
Founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri and teaching ever since. Non-Muslims cannot enter the prayer hall, but the doorways off the lanes around it frame the courtyard, the fountain and the green-tiled roofs, and the library on Place Seffarine was restored and reopened last decade.
Built between 1350 and 1355 for the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris, and the most complete piece of fourteenth-century craftsmanship in the city: carved cedar, cut stucco and zellij on every surface. One of the few religious buildings in Fes that non-Muslims may enter.
Smaller than Bou Inania and, most people decide, finer. A Marinid college wedged beside the spice souk at the east end of Talaa Kebira, with an upstairs gallery of student cells that looks down on the courtyard and across to the Qarawiyyin roofs.
The medina's main descent, from the blue gate at the top to the al-Attarine madrasa at the bottom, and the one route through Fes el-Bali you can hold in your head. Everything else branches off it. Walk it downhill on your first morning and the city stops being a maze.
Ruined fourteenth-century tombs on the hillside north of the walls, worth the climb for the view rather than the stones. From up here the medina reads as one dense field of roofs with the Qarawiyyin minaret standing in the middle of it.
The tomb of the ruler Fes counts as its founder, and one of the holiest places in Morocco. The approach lanes are crossed at ankle height by wooden beams that once marked the sanctuary limit. Non-Muslims stop at the doorway, which still gives you the candles and the crowd.
A small triangular square against the Qarawiyyin wall where brass and copper are still beaten into trays, kettles and lanterns by hand. You hear it before you reach it. Take one of the cafe stools on the edge and let the hammering be the point.
Seven gilded brass doors set in zellij and carved cedar, facing a square laid out for them in 1969. The palace behind is closed, so this is a five-minute stop rather than a visit, and it is the reason most people cross into Fes el-Jdid at all.
Morocco's first walled Jewish quarter, laid out beside the palace in the fifteenth century, and the one district in Fes with balconies facing the street rather than blank walls. The seventeenth-century Ibn Danan synagogue was brought back from near-ruin in the 1990s.
The Alaouite answer to the Marinid madrasas: plainer, and built in the seventeenth century to house far more students.
Marinid, named for the reflecting pool in its courtyard. Restored by ADER-Fes and reopened in 2017.
Founded in the ninth century on the far bank of the river, with a monumental carved gate you can read from the lane.
The ruined water clock facing Bou Inania. Thirteen beams, a row of brass bowls, and no agreed explanation of how it worked.
The blue-and-green gate everyone photographs, built by the French administration in 1913 rather than by a sultan.
The older gate beside Bou Jeloud, and the start of the walk along the northern wall towards Borj Nord.
The tall southern gate into the walled royal city, opening onto the one straight main street in Fes.
Lunch outdoors in the overgrown courtyard of a collapsed house, beside Riad Idrissy.
A family house serving one Fassi menu a night to a handful of tables. Book the day before.
The grandest of them, with a rooftop pool and a terrace looking over the whole of Fes el-Bali.
Courtyard pool below, and a terrace with the Middle Atlas on the horizon on a clear day.
A quieter option with a panoramic terrace over the old city, useful when the medina roofs are the point.
The spice and perfume lane beside the al-Attarine madrasa, and the oldest commercial street in the medina.
The carpenters' square, with a zellij-faced fountain on one side and a restored caravanserai on the other.
A small shaded square selling henna, kohl and pottery, and one of the calmest corners of Fes el-Bali.
The middle of the three working tanneries, with terraces above it and a fraction of the crowd at Chouara.
The smallest, on the northern edge of the medina, and the one where nobody will steer you into a shop.
Moroccan woodwork in an eighteenth-century caravanserai on Place Nejjarine, with a roof terrace at the top.
A Hispano-Moorish palace near Bab Bou Jeloud holding the city's craft collection, with gardens that host the Sufi festival.
A nineteenth-century royal garden between the two medinas, restored and reopened in 2011. Entry is free.
A Saadian fort of 1582 on the hill above the medina, now an arms museum, and a viewpoint on the way to the Merenid tombs.
The eastern half of the old medina, holding the university, the souks and the tanneries. This is the Fes people mean.
The far bank, settled by refugees from Iberia, with its own mosque and madrasa and almost no visitors.
The walled royal city added by the Marinids in the thirteenth century, holding the palace and the Mellah.
The hinge between the medina and the modern city: the museum, the gardens and the taxi ranks.
The French-planned grid south-west of the walls, where the railway station, the banks and the late bars are.
The fourth imperial city, about an hour west, and the monumental Bab Mansour is only the start of it.
The Roman city on the plain, roughly 95 km west, kept for its floor mosaics rather than its walls.
A whitewashed pilgrimage town spilling over two hills, ten minutes from Volubilis and usually joined to it.
Alpine-looking Ifrane and the cedar woods above Azrou, where Barbary macaques sit by the road. About 60 km south.
Sefrou's medina and the cave houses at Bhalil, both inside 45 minutes, and an easy half day.
The city's biggest week, staged in late May or early June at Bab Makina, Jnan Sbil and the Batha gardens.
Three days of parades and music in Sefrou, half an hour south, timed to the cherry harvest.
Amazigh music, dance and debate across the city, usually held in July.
A national holiday on 30 July. Offices and banks close; the medina keeps its own hours.
Morocco's largest pilgrimage, at the hill town near Volubilis, and an easy day trip from Fes.
Eight evenings of Sufi music and talks in the gardens of the Batha museum.
Aid al-Istiqlal, on 18 November, marks the end of French and Spanish rule. Flags go up across the Ville Nouvelle.
The lunar month moves back eleven days a year. Kitchens open late and the evening medina is at its best.
About 15 km south of the city. Bus 16 links the terminal with the main railway station through the day, and a grand taxi covers the same ground in 20 to 30 minutes.
Fes sits on the northern line. Trains run to Meknes in under an hour and on to Rabat, Casablanca and Tangier. The station is in the Ville Nouvelle, not the medina.
Petits taxis work inside the city and are metered, though the meter often needs asking for. Grands taxis run fixed routes out of town and are sold by the seat.
No car reaches most of Fes el-Bali, one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world, and goods still move by mule. Use Talaa Kebira and Talaa Seghira as your spine.
Shredded msemen under chicken, lentils and fenugreek, in a broth heavy with ras el hanout.
The tomato, lentil and chickpea soup eaten all over Morocco, made here with more care than most.
The Fassi showpiece: pigeon or chicken layered in warqa pastry, dusted with sugar and cinnamon.
Fava bean puree under olive oil and cumin, sold from stalls at breakfast for small change.
Meat preserved in spiced fat, kept for months and fried with eggs in the morning.
Doughnuts fried to order and handed over on a loop of string.
Potato fritters spiked with herbs, fried on the street and eaten in bread.
Whole lamb slow-roasted in a pit oven, sold by weight and eaten with cumin and salt.
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