The Coolidge examiner., 1936-08-07

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C.-WNU Service.
F RABAT is the brain of Mo-
rocco, Fez is its heart. AL
Il most equidistant from the
Atlantic and the Mediterra-
mean, and nearly a hundred miles
from either is this storied city, still
the political and religious center of
Morocco.
From hillside one looks down,
in wonder and admiration, on the
tree shaded valley in which lies
once-turbulent, alWays-exotic, now
peaceful Fez. 1t is a chessboard,
checkered in countless tiny squares
which are the fiat roofs of its myri-
ad houses, the edge of the board
being the lofty city walls.
Rather, there are two chess
boards: Fez El Bali, Fez the Old;
and higher along the steep slope
is Fee Djedid, Fez the New. 1t
was new IN A. D. 1916.
Like chessmen left scattered
aimlessly 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 rebelious sub
jects within the city, others erected
by the French to defend Fez
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 steppes are
waist-high in flowers.
Fez 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
infidels 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 Sherifan rulers,
the real capital, the enlightened,
artistic, magnificent city second to
none in all Islam, when in the
Twelfth century it boasted 785
mosques; 480 inns, and 10000 pri-
vate houses.
But harki A humming drone
fills the air; and high over the
venerable city flies an airplane.
France rules the sky above and
the soil beneath; the Sultan is
shadow in Rabat.
Is Yet Unspoilt
Being only recently opened to the
outer world, Fez is as yet unspoilt
and of deep interest to the traveller.
Its size surprises. From cne end
to the other of the twin cities it
four miles. It's popula-
ton today is about 107, 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 sprinllling 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 musC enter
on foot or in the saddle, for vehicles
cannot pass through its steep and
narrow lanes.
From Bah Hadid (The Iron Gate)
a carriage road runs inside the
walls around the edge of the city
to the new gate of Bou Jeloud,
where Fez Djedid touches the older
town. Along it modern civiliza-
ton fringes the ancient city, for it
passes by the Advert hospital, a
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 Dar
Beida, another imperial palace now
used only to shelter the resident
general when he visits Fez.
None of the Arab buildings con-
verted 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 a five
story London dwelling. They shut
out the sky in the winding alleys.
Dismal as is their outward ap-
pearance, many are the residences
of rich and noble Moors, and the