Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-08-06
Prepared by the National Geographic Society
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.


Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
TT RABAT is the brain of Mo.
rocco, Fee is its heart. AL
i most equidistant from the
Atlantic and the Mediterra-
mean, and nearly hundred miles
from either is this storied city, still
the political and religious center OF
Morocco.
From a hillside one looks down,
in wonder and admiration, on the
tree shaded valley in which lies
once-turbulent, always-exotic, now
peaceful Fee. 1t is chessboard,
checkered in countless tiny squares
which are the flat roofs of its myri-
ad houses, the edge of the board
being the lofty city walls.
Rather, there are two chess
boards: Fee Ell Bali, Fee the Old;
and higher along the steep slope
is Fee Djedid, Fee the New. 1t
was new in A. D. 1916.
Like chessmen left scattered
airnlessly about the board stand
the slender minarets of the many
mosques. On every side rise the
hills crowned with forts old and
new forts built by long-dead sui
tans to COW their rebellious SUBJ
jects within the city, others erected
by the French to defend Fee
against the Berber tribes outside
the walls.
Beyond the rounded hills, away
to the south, are higher mountains
covered with snow in winter. But
in summer the arid stcppes are
waist-high in flowers.
Fee appears now as it did
through the long centuries of Mos
lem domination, since Arab invad-
ers built it somewhere about A. D.
300; as it was before ever the
inidels entered it except as slaves
or as missions of Christian states
humbly seeking to propitiate the
Sultan.
1t remains as it was when still
the home of the Sheridan rulers,
the real capital, the enlightened,
artistic, magnificent city second to
none in all Islam, when in the
Twelfth century it boosted 1856
mosques; 480 inns, and 10000 pri-
vate houses.
But bark! A humming drone
fills the air; and high over the
venerable city flies an airplane
France rules the sky above and
the soil beneath.
Is Yet Unspoilt
Being only recently opened to the
outer world, Fee is as yet unspoilt
and of deep interest to the traveller.
Its size surprises. From one end
to the other of the twin cities it
measures four miles. It's popula-
ton today is about 107 900, includ-
ing fewer than 10000 Israelites who
are herded together in the Jewish
quarter of Fee Djedid.
The European inhabitants, to be
found mostly in La Vile Nouvelle,
number about $500, principally
French, with a sprinkling of Span
iards and Italians.
Of the three parts of Fez-old,
new, and newest unquestionably
the most interesting is the first, Ell
Bali. To see it one must enter
on foot or in the saddle, for vehicles
cannot pass through its steep and
narrow lanes.
From Bah Hadid (The Iron Gate)
carriage roaC runs inside the
walls around the edge of the city
to the new gate of Bou Jeloud,
where Fee Djedid touches the older
town. Along it modern civiliza-
ton fringes the ancient city, for it
passes by the Advert hospital,
French post office, the British con-
sulate, the bureau of municipal
services, a military club, and a
museum housed in separate parts
of an old palace, the Oar Batha,
and by the lovely gardens of Oar
Beida, another imperial palace now
used only to shelter the resident
general when he visits Fee.
None of the Arab buildings con-
verified to modern uses has been
Europeanized in outward appear
ance and so they do not detract
from the native aspect of the city.
Leaving them one plunges down
steep lanes, dreary and desolate,
between the blank walls of tall
houses almost windowless on the
street side, some as high as five
story London dwelling They shut
out the sky in the winding alleys.
Dismal as is their outward an
pearance, many are the residences
of rich and noble Moors, and the
interiors are light and luxurious.