Fes el Bali

Fes el Bali is not a preserved museum piece but a working medieval city, and that is the reason to go. Founded under the Idrisid dynasty around the turn of the ninth century, it is one of the largest car-free urban areas anywhere, so goods still move through its lanes by handcart and donkey. At its heart is the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque, home to a university founded in the ninth century and often called the oldest still working. Expect to get lost; that is part of the experience, though a local guide for the first morning saves a lot of frustration. Its walls and gates frame the medina, but the real draw is life inside them: workshops, fountains and markets packed into lanes too narrow for any car.