{"id":7031,"date":"2026-08-03T20:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T20:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:56:13","slug":"fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/en\/fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"Fes &#8211; The great imperial city of Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Fes <\/strong>is a city of <strong>Morocco<\/strong>, located between the massif of the<strong> Rif <\/strong>and the <strong>Middle Atlas<\/strong>. As one of Morocco&#8217;s <strong>imperial<\/strong> cities, it has at various times been the country&#8217;s capital and is nowadays considered its <strong>spiritual capital<\/strong>. Its foundation dates back to the end of the 8th century, under the reign of<strong> Moulay Idriss I<\/strong><strong><sup>st<\/sup><\/strong>. Its past prestige made it one of the major centers of <strong>Islamic<\/strong> civilization connected to <strong>Baghdad<\/strong>, <strong>Damascus<\/strong>, <strong>Cordoba<\/strong>,<strong> Cairo<\/strong>, <strong>Kairouan<\/strong>, <strong>Granada<\/strong>, <strong>Palermo<\/strong>, <strong>Isfahan<\/strong> and <strong>Samarkand<\/strong>, with which it had established exchanges both <strong>economic<\/strong> and <strong>social<\/strong> and <strong>cultural<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Various titles have been attributed to the city of Fes, including the <strong>Athens<\/strong> of <strong>Africa<\/strong>, the queen of the <strong>Maghreb<\/strong> and the Bagdad of the Maghreb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is spread across two sectors: the old city (<strong>medina<\/strong>), listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the <strong>royal<\/strong> enclosure and the new quarters, established by the <strong>French<\/strong>, which today extend into the surrounding plain. Administratively, the city is made up of the municipality of Fes (divided into six districts) and the municipality of <strong>M\u00e9chouar F\u00e8s Jdid<\/strong> (where the royal palace is located).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was founded in&nbsp; <strong>789 AD by Idriss I<\/strong>. His son, Sultan <strong>Idriss II<\/strong>, decided in 809 to establish there the seat of the <strong>dynasty<\/strong>. By 818, the sultan welcomed into his city 8,000 families of <strong>Andalusian Muslims<\/strong>. Seven years later, this new population was reinforced by the arrival of <strong>Jews<\/strong> and <strong>Kairouanians<\/strong> (today&#8217;s <strong>Tunisia<\/strong>). Rich in these multiple religious, cultural and architectural heritages, Fes quickly became the religious and cultural center of Morocco. From then on, despite dynastic wars and periods when it was not the country&#8217;s official capital, the imperial city never ceased to grow and beautify. Today, Fes is undoubtedly the most authentic city in North Africa. The intellectual influence of its <strong>Quranic<\/strong> <strong>university<\/strong>, its famous <strong>Karaouiyne<\/strong> <strong>mosque<\/strong>, its treasures of <strong>Arab-Andalusian<\/strong> art, its medieval medina of F\u00e8s el-Bali and its highly talented <strong>artisans<\/strong> make it the guardian of the traditions of <strong>Islam<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fes is at the crossroads of several trade routes joining the south with the <strong>Sijilmassa <\/strong>and the <strong>Mali<\/strong> and to the north via the ports of <strong>Tangier<\/strong> and <strong>Ceuta<\/strong>, to the east via<strong> Marrakech<\/strong> and to the west via <strong>Tlemcen<\/strong>, <strong>Tunis<\/strong> and farther on <strong>Cairo<\/strong> and <strong>Mecca<\/strong> or <strong>Damascus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fes, an age-old city, knows how to preserve its deep personality while opening up to modernism. Fes relinquishes the status of capital to Rabat, but remains the spiritual capital of this Morocco deep in history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fes, an age-old city, knows how to preserve its deep personality while opening up to modernism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[452],"tags":[96,176,179,181,58,177,182],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-histoire","tag-art","tag-fes","tag-fez","tag-imperial","tag-maroc","tag-royaume","tag-unesco","latest_post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fes - The great imperial city of Morocco - Chiquie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fes - The great imperial city of Morocco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/en\/fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fes - The great imperial city of Morocco - Chiquie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fes - The great imperial city of Morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/en\/fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chiquie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/boutiquechiquie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-03T18:56:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/chiquie.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chiquie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chiquie_chiquie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@chiquie_chiquie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"chiquie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/en\/fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/en\/fes-the-great-imperial-city-of-morocco\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"chiquie\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chiquie.fr\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d0b835feb80401c8c04c5172a3133cc3\"},\"headline\":\"Fes &#8211; 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