The photograph that sells more Fes tours than any other — colour-flecked stone honeycombs of dye pits, men working in lime baths up to their thighs — is taken in one place: the Chouara tannery, in the heart of Fes el-Bali next to the Oued Fes. The site has been processing hides for somewhere between 900 and 1,000 years, with founding traditions reaching back to the Idrisid era.

Chouara is the largest of three working tanneries still operating inside the medina (the others are Sidi Moussa and Ain Azliten). A cooperative of more than 300 families runs the pits, and a major restoration in the 2010s stabilised the stone basins and re-paved the surrounding lanes. Operating hours run roughly 09:00 to 19:00; the bulk of the workers have left the pits by 17:00.

Visitors don't go down into the tannery itself — viewing happens from rooftop terraces of the leather shops on Derb Chouara. There is no formal entry fee, but a tip of around 10 to 20 dirhams per person is expected, plus polite interest in whatever shoes, bags and jackets the shopkeeper wants to show you on the way up. Shops at No. 10 and No. 64 are widely considered the best vantage points.