Fez, Morocco 1

Fez, often cited as the spiritual capital of Morocco, is the oldest of Morocco’s four imperial capitals and the most complete medieval city of the Arab world. Fez stimulates all the senses: it's a barrage of haunting and beautiful sounds, infinite visual details and unfiltered odours. Over one quarter or so of Fez’s one-million-plus inhabitants continue to live in the extraordinary Medina-city of Fez el Bali. More than any other city in Morocco, the old town seems suspended in time somewhere between the Middle Ages and the modern world.

In its heyday, Fez attracted scholars and philosophers, mathematicians and lawyers, astronomers and theologians. Craftsmen built them houses and palaces, kings endowed mosques and religious schools, and merchants offered exotic wares from the silk roads and sub-Saharan trade routes. It remains a supremely self-confident city whose cultural and spiritual lineage beguiles visitors.