Kairaouine Mosque, Fes

No. The Kairaouine Mosque — formally the University of Al-Qarawiyyin — has been closed to non-Muslims since 1948, when a decree reserved all major Moroccan mosques for worshippers only. The same rule applies to Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and nearly every mosque in the country, with a handful of exceptions. You can stand at the ornate doorways and, from rooftop terraces nearby, look across the green-tiled roof and the minaret, but you will not pass inside.

It depends on your definition. The institution was founded in 859 CE by Fatima al-Fihri, making it the oldest continuously operating higher educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and the Guinness Book of Records. If you use the narrower European definition of a "university" (granting formal degrees with a fixed curriculum), there is room for debate — but by any reasonable measure, learning has taken place here for over 1,100 years, and the claim is not marketing spin.

From street level you can see the elaborately carved cedarwood doors at several entrances, tiled zellige dados along the outer walls, and — when doors open briefly at prayer times — glimpses of the marble-paved courtyard and ablutions fountain inside. From rooftop terraces at the Al-Attarine Madrasa and nearby cafés you can look over the mosque's green-tiled roof and photograph the square minaret. The adjacent Kairaouine Library, restored in 2016 by architect Aziza Chaouni, sometimes opens for small group visits by arrangement.

The Al-Attarine Madrasa terrace (entry indicative 70 MAD / ~$7) is the single best viewpoint: you look directly at the minaret from almost the same height. The rooftop café called Terrasse de la Mosquée offers a slightly lower angle over a mint tea. Several riads on Rue Sarraj and the lanes immediately north of the mosque also have terraces with clear sightlines — ask your host. First light and the golden hour before sunset produce the warmest colours on the tilework.

Rarely, and not as a walk-in attraction. The library holds some 4,000 manuscripts including a 9th-century Quran written on camel skin, and public access has historically been extremely restricted. Since the 2016 restoration it opens occasionally for academic delegations and sometimes for small guided groups. If you are deeply interested, contact the Fes medina authorities or a specialist cultural tour operator well in advance. For most visitors, the exterior of the library building — facing a small square east of the mosque — is as close as you will get.

Very close. The outer walls of the mosque complex sit right on the narrow lanes of Fes el-Bali, so you walk alongside tiled exterior walls, pass directly in front of the carved cedarwood doors, and stand in the small squares that open at each entrance. In Fes's dense medina there is no courtyard buffer or plaza to keep you at distance. What you cannot do is cross the threshold into the prayer hall. A guided walking tour is the most efficient way to find each doorway — the medina's unlabelled lanes disorient most first-time visitors.

Budget 45–90 minutes for the exterior circuit, which takes in the main doorways, a stop at Al-Attarine Madrasa for the rooftop viewpoint, and a tea at a nearby café. If you combine it with the Bou Inania Madrasa (a 10-minute walk along Talaa Kebira) and the adjacent spice souks of Souk el-Attarine, a comfortable half-day disappears easily. A guide saves you from missing half the doorways — the lanes narrow to less than a metre in places and it is easy to walk past an entrance without realising.