Rabat — In a glowing travel feature— straightforwardly titled “Ditch Marrakech for Fez, Morocco’s Real Capital of Culture” — British newspaper The Daily Telegraph invites readers to explore the spiritual and artistic richness of the ancient city.
From the rooftop of Riad Fez to the winding alleys of the medina, the piece paints Fez as a city that rewards those who slow down and dive deep. “Marrakech may hog the headlines, but elegant Fez is the country’s cultural heart,” stressed the author Paula Hardy.
Fez is described not just as a historic gem, but as Morocco’s true cultural capital—“a Tardis that rewards those who make the effort to get beneath the surface.” The article highlights the city’s layered past, with nods to figures like Idris II and Fatima al-Fihriya, founder of the world’s oldest university, and follows the footsteps of poets, scholars, artisans, and spiritual seekers.
The Telegraph praises the recently reopened Al Batha Museum, the spellbinding architecture of Bou Inania and Attarine madrasas, and the sensory richness of the souks—filled with spices, incense, carved cedarwood, and colorful zellige tiles. “Drama and intrigue is knit into the fabric of this great labyrinthine medina,” writes Hardy.
The author encapsulates the city’s charm most vividly through the lens of photographer Omar Chennafi who describes Fez as “a place of intense, condensed human experience,” while rooftop views over the Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and the Fez Festival of Sacred Music evoke a sense of timeless wonder.
Whether sipping mint tea at the Chouara tannery or listening to flamenco under the lanterns of Jnan Sbil, Fez offers, in the Telegraph’s words, something “beautiful, fascinating, and unlike anything ever seen.”
