Look for a tall, sand-colored gate with handsome geometric patterns, a grand scalloped archway, and castle-like crenellations along the top-right ahead of you!
Now, get ready to step into centuries of stories! You’re standing in front of Bab Semmarine, which means “Gate of the Farriers”-and if you can imagine the clanging of iron and the smell of horses, well, you're halfway back to when blacksmiths had their shops right beside this spot. Originally though, this gate had a different name-Bab ‘Oyun Sanhaja, the “Gate of the Water Sources”-but I guess someone thought horseshoes were a bit more fashionable than waterworks!
Bab Semmarine came into being back in 1276, under the ambitious Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Ya’qub, who built Fes el-Jdid as his new royal city, a place fit for kings and grand plans. Picture royal guards at their posts and, just beyond the walls, the everyday hustle of a marketplace. They fortified this city like their lives depended on it, with giant double walls-after all, you can never be too careful with your new neighbors in Fes el-Bali! Originally, this gate was the southern door to the city, but new neighborhoods and, eventually, the Jewish Mellah district joined the party on the outside, swallowing it within the city’s ever-growing embrace.
Pass through Bab Semmarine, and you’d find yourself at the start of the city’s main souq street, which still pulses with life and leads all the way north to the gates of the Royal Palace. To your left used to be another world-grain silos, warehouses, all slowly replaced by homes as the city changed shape through the years.
In 1924, the gate got a major makeover, losing its maze-like medieval entrance and gaining these wide arches to let cars zoom through-though, to be honest, donkeys probably still have the right of way! So as you stand here, imagine all the footsteps, hooves, and wheels that have passed under these arches, each one with their own story to tell.
