The medieval tanneries of Fez

Fez is the center of the Moroccan leather industry and there is an almost compulsive fascination about its tanneries.

After you find your way through the maze of alleys in the medina, the tanneries are at once beautiful for their ancient dyeing vats that fill up every space between the houses, and unforgettable for the nauseating smell that comes from the hundreds of skins of sheep, goat, cow and camel being turned into finished leather.

The skins are being placed successively in saline solution, lime and pigeon dropping with its high amount of ammonia (helps to clean and soften the skins). After they dried on the rooftops by the sun, the skins go into any of several natural dyes; poppies for red, turmeric for yellow, indigo for blue and mint for green. Busy, barefoot workers in shorts pick up skins from the bottoms of the vats with their feed and then work each manually before stretching them on wooden frames. The process is extremely labor-intensive and can take up to 20 days to complete.

An occasional rinsing machine on the side and the progressing replacement of vegetable dyes by chemicals is all that changed here since the sixteenth century. The physically demanding work is an exclusive male profession and passed down from generation to generation.

The finished leather is distributed throughout the medina to be crafted into beautiful handbags and other famous Moroccan leather items.

Visitors are welcomed at the tanneries and can see the process of curing leather from the "Terrasse des Tanneurs". Apparently smelling mint leaves help to "sweeten" the strong smell that has to be endured during a visit.