The 15-Meter High Gate Built by the Almohads

In a time of old, the city of Fes lay severed in two by a river. On one bank stood Madinat Fas, governed by an emir named al-Fetouh from 1059 to 1061, who erected a gate to define his realm. Across the water, his brother 'Ajissa ruled the opposite shore. These twin cities eventually fell to the Almoravids, who bound them into a single city shielded by one set of walls in 1069.

But walls of stone often crumble under the weight of conquest. In 1145, the Almohad conqueror Abd destroyed these fortifications, yet his successor, Muhammad, raised them again in 1212. The gate known as Bab Ftouh stands from that Almohad era. Rising 15 meters high, it offers a straight passage into the old city, flanked by two rectangular towers that stand like silent sentinels.

Beyond the gate, the earth swells into the Bab Ftouh Cemetery, a place of great prestige where the wealthy and the Muslim saints rest. To the east lies Sidi Harazem, named for a Sufi mystic from the 12th century whose mausoleum bears a green pyramidal roof. Every spring, a festival gathers at his tomb. Today, Bab Ftouh remains a gateway where the pulse of old city life meets the path to Taza.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons