"THE NOT SO SWEET SMELL OF PROGRESS," THE LEATHER TANNERY SOUKS OF FEZ
Mar 04 '02 (Updated May 09 '05)
The Bottom Line It's amazing how long you can hold your breath when you really want to.
The first thing you notice is the smell. There is a pungent aroma that hits you the minute you come out of the ancient passage way. The second thing is how bright it is. The whole area is open and the bright sunlight is a sharp contrast to the dim narrow streets of the ancient city.
This is Fez, the ancient capital of Morocco. More precisely this is Fez's leather souk, the ancient square where coats, shoes and other leather articles are still made the traditional way.
A sprig of mint is offered to visitors to counter the overwhelming aroma. With this clutched under your nose you carefully enter the open square. Narrow slippery passages wind between ancient stone tubs. Piles of hides are stacked everywhere. Men young and old move around in some sort of chaotic ballet, moving piles of hides from one vat to another.
Carefully you make your way through this chaos to the far end. Here you ascend a narrow staircase to the flat roof of one of the buildings. From this vantage point you can see the whole process. The hides are brought in, sorted and graded. Then they begin the ancient process of being cured and coloured in the ancient stone tubs. The process has not changed much since before the middle ages. The smell your guide will happily point out is a result of this. The acids from bird droppings are used in the vats. It almost makes you want to never buy a leather coat again. That is until later you see tne finished products on sale in the markets, and the prices.
There appears to be a method to the madness below you, as you note the process. Young men, boys really, do the heavy work, fetching and carrying the bales. Older more experienced workers tend the vats, sometimes assisted by those boys who have graduated to this role. Ancient old men, who look as though they have been here forever, and some probably have, supervise everything.
The tanned hides are laid to dry everywhere on the flat roofs that surround the area. From here they are again sorted and when ready carried off down winding passages back into the heart of the city. Skilled craftsmen will then turn them into elegant jackets, shoes and purses. Later they will be sold in the numerous shops here and elsewhere in the country.
Eventually you descend from the roof, back into the chaos. One hand steadying yourself, so you don't slip and fall into one of the stone tubs, the other still clutching the sprig of mint under your nose. The smell doesn't seem to get any better the longer you stay, and you wonder how long one must work here before you don't notice it. Back you go, down the narrow passage and into the winding ancient streets of Fez.
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