Bab Bou Jeloud

Bab Bou Jeloud is younger than it looks. The triple-arched gate that frames the western entrance to Fes el-Bali was built by the French colonial administration: the head of municipal services laid out plans for a new opening in the walls in December 1912, and the gate was completed in 1913. Its designers borrowed the full vocabulary of Moroccan architecture, pointed horseshoe arches, carved stucco, a crenellated crown, and dressed it in glazed tile, blue on the side facing out towards the new town and green on the side facing the medina. The result is an entrance built partly for show, and it has become the emblem of the old city.

The older gate it replaced is still there, if you know where to look. Just to the left of the monumental arches, as you face them from outside, is a much plainer opening, closed off today, that probably goes back essentially to the twelfth century. It was a bent entrance, turning a corner inside the wall so that attackers could not charge straight through. Seen side by side, the two gates tell the story of Fes: the defensive medieval city and the decorative gateway added when the medina became something to be displayed as well as defended.

The best view is from outside, on the square that has long carried the name Bou Jeloud. Look through the central arch and two minarets line up in the frame: the one belonging to the Bou Inania Madrasa and the more recent one of the Sidi Lazzaz Mosque. Step through, and the tile turns green and the city closes in. Immediately beyond, the gate opens onto Tala'a Kebira and Tala'a Seghira, the two long souq streets that descend through the medina; Tala'a Kebira runs all the way down to the Qarawiyyin mosque and university at the heart of Fes. At dusk, when the tiles darken and the lamps come on, the arches read as the threshold they were designed to be.

The name is older than the gate. Bou Jeloud originally referred to a parade ground, the large square just west of the arches, now also called Place el-Baghdadi, and the gate simply borrowed it. Beyond the arches cars are no longer allowed, so this is where the city of motor traffic ends and the walking city begins, a threshold worth crossing more than once, in the morning bustle and again in the evening light.

Getting there

The gate stands on the western edge of Fes el-Bali, about 2 km from the Ville Nouvelle, the French-built new town. Fès–Saïss Airport (FEZ) is about 15 km away. Petit taxis can drop you at Bab Bou Jeloud; beyond the gate the medina is closed to cars, and everything continues on foot.