4 stories
The libraries, the scholars, the transmission of learning across the medieval Mediterranean world.
Africa's highest ski resort. Bronze Age rock carvings next to the equipment rental.
At 2,600 metres in the High Atlas, Africa's highest ski resort sits on a plateau covered in prehistoric rock engravings that nobody has adequately explained.
A hydraulic clock. Water, weights, bronze bowls. Nobody knows how it worked.
Dar al-Magana sits on Tala'a Kebira in the heart of Fes el-Bali, directly opposite the Bou Inania Madrasa. Built in 1357 by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris, it housed a hydraulic clock that told time using water, weights, and bronze bowls. The clock has been silent for centuries, and no one has been able to make it work again.
Founded in 859 CE by a woman. Continuously operating for eleven centuries.
Al-Qarawiyyin in Fes is either the oldest university in the world or it is not, depending on which historian you ask. What is not disputed: Fatima al-Fihri founded it in 859, it has been teaching continuously for over a thousand years, and its library holds manuscripts that predate most European institutions.
Thirteen windows. Thirteen brass bowls. A timekeeping system nobody has fully explained.
In the 14th century, across the street from the Bou Inania Madrasa in Fes, someone installed a clock that ran on water.
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Written from the medina. Sent when it matters.