Fez: the Medina Tanneries in the Morning Light

Fès el-Bali, the walled medina, is the largest car-free urban area in the world and among the most intact medieval Islamic cities. The Chouara Tannery, still producing leather using thousand-year-old methods in open-air stone vats dyed with saffron, poppy, mint, and indigo, occupies the northeast of the medina: leather shop terraces above provide the elevated view into the vat complex, and morning northeast light illuminates the colours most intensely before noon. The Merenid Tombs, ruined 14th-century mausoleums on a hilltop north of the medina at 450 metres, give the canonical rooftop panoramic of Fès el-Bali at sunset: the medina rooftops and minarets turn amber in western light. Borj Nord, a fortress on the north hill at 430 metres, gives a similar south-facing elevated view. At 34°N, golden hour lasts about 32 minutes. October through April gives the clearest light and the best minaret colour.