What is Fes el-Bali vs Fes el-Jdid?

The names confuse almost everyone, so let me untangle them, because 'new' here means seven hundred years old, not modern. Fes el-Bali — 'old Fes' — is the original medina founded in the 9th century, and it's the largest car-free urban area in the world: an astonishing labyrinth of around nine thousand lanes folded into a valley. This is the Fes of legend, and in my view the most intact medieval city in the Arab world. Wandering it, you pass the famous Chouara tanneries with their stone vats of dye, Al-Qarawiyyin (founded in 859 and recognised as the oldest continually operating university on earth), the exquisite Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas, and the great Kairaouine quarter, all woven into a living city where donkeys still carry goods because no car can fit.

Fes el-Jdid — 'new Fes' — was built in the 13th century by the Marinid dynasty as a royal and administrative city beside the old one. It's much smaller and more orderly, and it holds a different set of treasures: the Royal Palace with its dazzling golden gates (you admire them from the square; the palace itself is closed to visitors), the Mellah or old Jewish quarter with its distinctive balconied houses and the Ibn Danan Synagogue, and the green Jnan Sbil gardens that offer rare shade and calm. It feels less overwhelming than Fes el-Bali, with somewhat wider streets.

In practice, when travellers picture 'the Fes medina', they mean Fes el-Bali — that's where you'll spend most of your time, get gloriously lost, and feel you've stepped back a thousand years. Fes el-Jdid is a fascinating add-on, usually visited en route, where the royal and Jewish heritage broadens the story. I generally guide people through Fes el-Bali over a full day or two with a local guide (genuinely worth it here — the maze defeats most visitors), then thread in Fes el-Jdid and the gardens for contrast.

There's also a French-built Ville Nouvelle beyond both, which is the actual modern city where many locals live and where you'll find drivable streets and modern hotels — but that's a separate thing again. For the visitor, the heart of Fes is Fes el-Bali, and almost everyone wants to stay in or right beside it in a riad, soaking up a medieval city that has somehow survived intact into the present day.