What are the best photo spots in Fes?

Fes is the most atmospheric and the most challenging medina to photograph in Morocco — it's the world's largest car-free urban area, a genuine medieval maze of thousands of dim, narrow, tunnel-like lanes, and that very quality is what makes it so cinematic and so hard. The signature shot is the Chouara tanneries: you reach a viewing terrace through one of the surrounding leather shops, who let visitors up onto their balconies (they hope you'll buy a bag or jacket — a small purchase or tip is the understood, fair exchange). From above you look down on the honeycomb of stone vats filled with white lime and rainbow dyes, with workers standing waist-deep. Morning light is best, when the pits are freshly worked.

For sheer ornamental beauty, the madrasas are unmissable. The Bou Inania Madrasa and the Al-Attarine Madrasa are masterpieces of carved cedar, stucco and zellige tilework around a central courtyard with a reflecting basin — shoot them early before tour groups, use the pool for reflections, and bring a lens wide enough for the soaring walls. The blue-and-green Bab Bou Jeloud gate is the grand photogenic entrance to the medina, beautifully tiled (blue on the outside, green on the inside) and best with afternoon light catching its face.

The medina lanes themselves are the real Fes. The shafts of light slicing down through the slatted reed roofs of the covered souks, the loaded donkeys squeezing past, the coppersmiths in the Seffarine square hammering away, the spice and produce stalls, the dyers' alley — these are gold for moody, textured street photography. Because it's so dark, I shoot at higher ISO and faster apertures and lean into the contrast between deep shadow and the bright patches of light. A local guide is honestly close to essential in Fes: the medina is genuinely disorienting, and a guide finds the photogenic corners, secures permission to shoot artisans, and keeps you oriented while you concentrate on the camera.

For the grand cityscape, head to the edges. The Marinid Tombs on the hillside north of the medina give the classic panorama of the entire honey-coloured city packed into the valley, bristling with minarets — superb at sunset and at sunrise (often with smoke and mist rising from the medina). The Borj Sud (south fortress) offers a similar elevated view from the opposite side, beautiful in golden-hour light. Both are short drives or taxi rides and worth timing precisely.

My honest take on Fes for photographers: it doesn't hand you its images easily the way Chefchaouen does — it demands you work for them in low light and tight spaces, but the rewards are the most authentic, soulful frames of any Moroccan city. Give it more time than you think, go with a guide, embrace the gloom, and aim for the madrasas and tanneries early and the hilltop viewpoints at the day's ends.