Quartier Mellah

The Mellah of Fez features high, fortress-like walls that separate its narrow alleyways from the royal district of Mechouar Fes Jdid. Established in the fourteenth century, this was the first designated Jewish quarter in Morocco. Sultans originally placed the community here to provide protection for the city's Jewish silversmiths and traders. In nineteen twelve, a French soldier accidentally triggered a massive explosion in a nearby munitions depot, an event that leveled much of the original housing and forced a total reconstruction of the neighborhood.