Self-Guided Walking Tour in Fez

Your Fez Walking Tour, Stop by Stop

1. 1

   Al-Attarine Madrasa (Médersa Al-Attarine)

   

   You enter from the spice souk, Souk el-Attarine, through a small doorway that gives no hint of what waits inside. Then the courtyard opens: a marble floor, a central fountain, and every visible surface covered in zellij tilework, carved cedar, and sculpted plaster dating to 1325. Sultan Abu Said Othman commissioned this madrasa, and the original 14th-century tile patterns have never been replaced. The space is small, maybe 15 by 15 meters, which makes the decorative density feel overwhelming in the best sense. Look up at the cedar lintels above the second-floor student cells. They are 700 years old and still sharply defined. Open daily 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is collected at the door. Mornings before 11:00 are quieter and the courtyard light is at its most dramatic. Spend 15 to 20 minutes studying the three-layer decoration system: zellij on the bottom, carved plaster in the middle, cedar wood at the top. This formula repeats at every madrasa in Fes, but Al Attarine does it best.

   Hours

   Daily: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

   Price

   30 MAD

   Location

   Al-Attarine Madrasa (Médersa Al-Attarine) on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Bou Inania Madrasa (Médersa Bou Inania)

   

   You spot the minaret first, rising above the roofline of Talaa Kebira, the medina's main downhill artery. Bou Inania is the only madrasa in Fes that doubled as a Friday mosque, and the only one with its own minaret. Built between 1350 and 1355, the scale is immediately larger than Al Attarine: a wider courtyard, a functioning ablution fountain, and walls layered with the same three-material system but at grander proportions. Before you enter, look across the narrow street at the Dar al-Magana, a 14th-century water clock built into the wall. The bronze bowls and wooden beams of the mechanism are still visible, though nobody alive has been able to reconstruct how it worked. Open daily 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission at the door. Spend 20 minutes here. The carved plaster panels inside are among the finest surviving examples of Marinid-era decoration in Morocco.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

   Price

   30 MAD

   Location

   Bou Inania Madrasa (Médersa Bou Inania) on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Bab Bou Jeloud

   

   The three arches appear at the end of the street, framing the Bou Inania minaret behind you. Walk through and turn around. The exterior tiles are blue, the color of Fes. The interior tiles are green, the color of Islam. Most visitors assume this gate is medieval. It is not. The French built it in 1913 to replace a much smaller 12th-century stone entrance. The original was functional. This version was designed to photograph well, and it does. Free to visit, open at all hours. Spend five minutes here. Take your photos from Place Pacha el-Baghdadi on the outside, where the full triple arch fills the frame. The square has cafes with rooftop terraces where you can see the gate from above, which is the better angle. Now head back into the medina through the alleys toward Place Nejjarine.

   Hours

   Always open

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Bab Bou Jeloud on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Place Nejjarine

   

   The square announces itself with the sound of running water. At its center stands an 18th-century mosaic fountain sheltered under a carved cedar wood canopy, one of the finest examples of zellij tilework in the entire medina. Behind it rises the Fondouk Nejjarine, a caravanserai dating from 1711 that once housed traveling merchants and their goods. The fondouk was restored in the 1990s and now operates as the Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts across three floors. The rooftop terrace offers one of the best elevated views of the medina's roofline, a maze of satellite dishes, minarets, and laundry lines stretching to the hills. Budget 20 minutes if you enter the museum, or five minutes to admire the fountain and the square's proportions. The carpenters' souk (nejjarine means carpenters) surrounds the square, and the smell of fresh cedar shavings mixes with the fountain water.

   Location

   Place Nejjarine on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Place Seffarine

   

   You hear Place Seffarine before you see it. The rhythmic clanging of hammers on copper and brass has echoed across this triangular square since the 14th century, making it the oldest continuously active metalworking quarter in Fes. Coppersmiths still sit cross-legged on the ground, hammering massive cauldrons, trays, and cooking pots by hand using techniques unchanged for centuries. The square is small, shaded by a single large plane tree, and bounded on one side by the wall of the Karaouine Library. There is nothing to pay and no hours to observe. Pull up a low stool at the edge and watch the craftsmen work. The noise is part of the experience. This is the medina at its most authentic: a working square that exists for its residents, not for visitors. The coppersmiths will largely ignore you unless you ask about their work, in which case they are happy to explain the process.

   Hours

   Daily: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Place Seffarine on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Chouara Tannery (Tannerie Chouara)

   

   You smell it before you see it. The combination of pigeon droppings, quicklime, and raw hides hits about two blocks out. Leather shop owners along the approach will offer you sprigs of fresh mint to hold under your nose. Take them. They will also offer to lead you to their rooftop terrace for a view of the tannery pits below. This is how Chouara works for visitors: you view it from above, from the leather shops on the second and third floors. There is no official entrance or ticket. The shop owners expect you to browse their goods afterward, but you are not obligated to buy. The view is genuinely striking: over 1,000 stone pits filled with dyes made from poppy flowers, saffron, indigo, and henna, with workers knee-deep in the vats. Operating since the 11th century. Open daily 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Go before noon when the workers are most active and the light hits the pits directly. Budget 20 to 30 minutes between the viewing terraces and browsing.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

   Price

   Free (tip expected for terrace access)

   Website

   moroccantannery.com ↗

   Location

   Chouara Tannery (Tannerie Chouara) on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   University of al-Qarawiyyin (Université Al Quaraouiyine)

   

   Founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, this is the oldest continuously operating degree-granting university in the world according to UNESCO and the Guinness Book of Records. You can see the courtyard through the open doors, but non-Muslims cannot enter the mosque or prayer hall. Stand at the main entrance on the north side and look through: the courtyard has a marble fountain, and the far wall is covered in zellij that predates anything you saw at the madrasas. The attached library, restored in 2016, holds a 9th-century Quran and a 12th-century original manuscript by Ibn Rushd (Averroes), but access requires special permission. Open daily 8:15 AM to 9:55 PM, though viewing is limited to the doorways. Free. Spend 10 minutes here. The scale of what this institution represents, over 1,100 years of continuous scholarship, becomes tangible when you stand at the threshold and look at tiles that scholars have walked past for a millennium.

   Hours

   Daily: 8:15 AM – 9:55 PM

   Price

   Free (exterior only; non-Muslims cannot enter)

   Website

   uaq.ma ↗

   Location

   University of al-Qarawiyyin (Université Al Quaraouiyine) on Google Maps ↗

How Long Does This Walking Tour Really Take?

The raw walking time for the 3.5 km route is about 45 minutes, but nobody walks the Fes medina at a normal pace. Alleys narrow to shoulder width, donkeys loaded with goods have the right of way, and you will stop to stare at things. Plan for 3 to 3.5 hours total with time inside the madrasas and at the tannery. Al Attarine and Bou Inania each deserve 15 to 20 minutes if the decorative details interest you. Chouara Tannery is worth 20 to 30 minutes between viewing terraces and browsing leather goods. The University of Karaouine is a 10-minute stop since interior access is restricted. For a break, Cafe Clock on Derb el-Magana near Bou Inania has a rooftop terrace, decent coffee, and a camel burger that has become a Fes institution.

Full Route, Shorter Walk or Two-Day Version?

The full walk is seven stops, but the medina rewards editing. Here are three ways to run it, depending on how much time and heat tolerance you have, all using the same stop numbers you'll see on the map.

Is This Fez Walking Tour Right for You?

The Fes medina is not a hard walk in distance, but it is a demanding one in orientation and footing. Here is who this route suits and how to bend it to your day.

Tickets & Skip-the-Line in Fez

Tips for Walking in Fez

• Start at Al Attarine by 10:00 AM when it opens, entering the medina from Rcif Square on the east side. Rcif is a short petit taxi ride from the Ville Nouvelle. Starting from the east lets you hit the tannery before noon when workers are most active and the heat has not yet intensified the smell.
• Wear shoes with real grip. The medina streets are polished stone, often wet from shop owners washing their storefronts or from donkey traffic. Some slopes are steep enough that smooth soles will slide. Sandals are a bad idea on this route.
• When someone tells you a street is closed or offers to show you a shortcut, decline firmly with 'la shukran' (no thank you) and keep walking. Streets in the medina do not close. This is the most common tout approach in Fes.
• For lunch, Cafe Clock on Derb el-Magana serves its famous camel burger and mint tea on a rooftop terrace with medina views. For something quick, the stalls near Boujloud Gate sell msemen flatbread with honey for a few dirhams.
• The best photo on this route is from a third-floor leather shop terrace overlooking Chouara Tannery. Go between 10:00 and 11:00 AM when the sun lights the dye pits directly and workers are moving between vats. The shop owners will let you photograph from their terrace before showing you their leather goods.

Why Walk This Route?

This walking tour through the Fes medina covers 7 stops across 3.5 km in about 1.8 hours, threading through the largest car-free urban zone in the world. Over 9,000 alleyways connect the mosques, madrasas, tanneries, and workshops of Fes el-Bali, most of them too narrow for anything wider than a donkey. You start at Al Attarine Madrasa while morning light floods the courtyard, continue to the only madrasa in Fes with its own minaret, pass through the blue-tiled gate that every photograph of the city features, cross two historic craft squares, watch tanners work in 11th-century dye pits, and finish at the oldest continuously operating university in the world. The order matters: hitting the tannery before midday keeps the smell manageable, and finishing near Boujloud Gate puts you close to the food stalls for lunch. Download your offline map before entering. Phone signal inside the medina is unreliable.

Common Questions