Mellah of Fes

Established 1438 under the Marinid dynasty. The first mellah in Morocco. The word itself may come from here — mellah, salt — possibly from the forced salting of severed heads, possibly from the salt marsh the quarter was built on. Scholars disagree. The cruelty of the first explanation has made it stick.

At its height, 250,000 Jews lived in the mellah and the quarter adjoins the royal palace. The bright brass doors of the palace are a contrast to the weathered facades around them. Jews sheltered inside those palace walls during the 1912 pogrom.

The mellah is a neighbourhood, not a museum. Narrow streets. Balconied houses — the balconies distinguished Jewish homes from Muslim ones. Markets. Life. Fewer than 200 Jews remain, but the architecture tells the story of six centuries.