Bab Boujloud

Bab Boujloud is the gate every visitor to Fes walks through and it is not old: the present structure was built in 1913 under the French protectorate, replacing a smaller gate, in a deliberately Moorish idiom with three horseshoe arches. Its trick is the tiling - the outward face is blue, the colour associated with Fes, and the inward face is green, the colour of Islam, so the gate changes as you pass through it and the framing of the Bou Inania minaret in the central arch from the inside is the standard photograph. Through it the medina divides immediately into its two main arteries, the Talaa Kebira and the Talaa Seghira, which run down through the whole of Fes el-Bali and rejoin near the Quaraouiyine. The square outside is full of cafes with terraces and the first stretch inside is the most touted part of the medina.

History

The name is older than the gate: it may come from Abu al-Junud, father of the troops, after the parade ground just west of it, near the old Kasbah Bou Jeloud. The earlier gate, a modest one probably of the 12th century, still stands closed to the left of the present one; its passage ran at a right angle, so that people entered the Tala'a Kebira sideways, a common defensive layout. After the French Protectorate was set up in 1912, the head of municipal services, Captain Mellier, drew up plans in December 1912 for a grander entrance, the city bought and pulled down a stable and three shops whose rent belonged to a charitable endowment, and the new gate, built in 1913 in a Moroccan style, still marks the main western entrance to the medina and the limit for cars (Wikipedia, Bab Bou Jeloud).

The main sights

• Two colours - blue on the outward face, green on the inward, changing as you pass.
• A 1913 construction - built under the protectorate in a Moorish idiom, not medieval.
• The framed minaret - Bou Inania seen through the central arch from inside.
• The medina's fork - the Talaa Kebira and Talaa Seghira starting here.

When to go

October to April; morning light on the blue face. Half an hour.

What to expect

It is a twentieth-century gate despite the impression it gives. The area immediately inside is the most aggressively touted part of the medina. Cafe terraces charge for the view. It is crowded at almost all hours.

Nearby

The Bou Inania madrasa is a short walk down the Talaa Kebira.

Key facts