Rabat – The French television channel TF1 aired a six-minute segment on Morocco’s cultural capital of Fez, called “A Weekend in Fes: Exploring the Largest Medina in the World,” on Saturday, April 27.
Presented by Audrey Crespo-Mara and narrated by Pierre Gallaccio, the segment takes viewers on a journey into the heart of the city, navigating its narrow maze-like alleyways and lively souks.
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Recently renovated under King Mohammed VI, the northeastern city of Fez, which was Morocco’s capital until 1912, charms visitors from all around the world.
The program tells visitors to Fez to “sharpen all your senses to soak up the atmosphere” of the city with “sounds of metal clangs forged, the colors, and the scents that will take you back in time.”
Besides the babouch slipper market and ancient leather tanneries, the program made stops at several cultural and historical landmarks of the city. At the Bab Boujloud gate, Gallaccio says the Fez medina (old city) has “9,600 alleyways,” making it a “real labyrinth … and a compass for lost wanderers trying to work their way through the crowded streets of the medina.”
Fez’s medina is home to the world’s oldest currently operating modern university of Al Quaraouiyine, founded by Fatima Al Fihriyya in 859, as recognized both by UNESCO and Guinness World Records.
The narrow streets of the medina make no room for vehicles, making mules, donkeys, motorcycles, and bicycles the only viable means of non-pedestrian transport.
