Merenid Tombs — The Sunset Balcony Above Fes

Fes el-Bali is famously hard to see as a whole - down in the medina you are walled into its lanes, with no sense of its size or shape. The Merenid Tombs solve that. From the crumbling ruins on the northern hill, the entire old city unfolds below you in a single sweep: a dense sea of flat roofs and satellite dishes pierced by minarets, the green-tiled roof of the Kairaouine picked out at its centre, and pale threads of smoke rising from the tanneries. On a clear evening you can trace the line of the city walls and pick out the gates.

It is the panorama every photographer and first-time visitor is looking for, and it is free. Come toward the end of the day, when the low sun warms the ochre walls and the whole medina glows, and stay for the moment the muezzins begin the sunset call to prayer - a wave of overlapping voices that rolls up the hillside from a thousand mosques below. It is one of the great sensory experiences of Morocco, and the reason the tombs, ruined as they are, remain a fixture of every Fes itinerary.

The monuments give the viewpoint its name but are today little more than roofless shells of tawny stone and stucco. They were built in the 14th century as the necropolis of the Merinid (Marinid) dynasty, the Berber rulers who made Fes their capital and endowed the medina with its great medersas, including the Bou Inania and the Al-Attarine. The tombs were once richly decorated royal mausoleums; centuries of weathering have stripped them back to fragments of wall and arch standing against the sky.

Do not come expecting a manicured monument - there is no ticket office, no interpretation and no barrier, just ruins on an open hillside. Their romance lies precisely in that decay, and in their position: the same elevation that made them a fitting royal resting place now makes them the city's natural balcony. Spend a few minutes among the stones, but understand that the view, not the architecture, is the attraction here.

There are two sensible ways up. The classic approach is on foot from Bab Guissa, the gate in the northern medina wall, following the road as it climbs the hillside - a steady 20 to 30 minute walk that is steep in places but straightforward. The lazier and cooler option is a petit taxi, which can drop you near the Borj Nord fortress a short stroll from the tombs for a small metered fare; arrange for it to wait or to collect you if you want to avoid walking back down at dusk.

A word on safety, because it matters here. The hillside is open and isolated, away from the crowds and eyes of the medina, and it has a long-standing reputation for hustlers and unofficial 'guides' who latch onto visitors, as well as occasional reports of theft after dark. This should not put you off - thousands visit without incident - but travel sensibly: go in a group rather than alone, especially women; arrive and leave in daylight; keep phones and cash discreet; and decline offers of guiding firmly but politely. A guide arranged through your riad removes the hassle entirely.

Getting the timing right is the whole game. Aim to be in position about an hour before sunset, which gives you the warm 'golden hour' light on the medina, the sunset itself, and the call to prayer that follows. Because Morocco keeps to a single time zone for most of the year, sunset shifts a good deal between winter and summer, so check the month before you set out. The table gives approximate sunset times for Fes, which sits at roughly 34 degrees north.

In midwinter the sun is down before 18:00, so an afternoon visit works well and you are back in the medina for dinner. In high summer sunset falls close to 20:00, which means a later climb but long, soft evening light. Whatever the season, do not linger past dusk on the hillside - enjoy the afterglow briefly, then head down while there is still light in the sky.

Face south from the tombs and the whole of Fes el-Bali lies before you, filling the valley to the far hills. Learn to read it: the green pyramidal roof near the centre is the Kairaouine; the minarets prick up all across the bowl; and the darker patches with rising smoke and steam mark the tanneries. To the west you can see toward Fes Jdid and the Royal Palace district, and the modern city climbing the slopes beyond. Bring a little patience and the layout of the medina you have been lost in all day finally makes sense.

For photography, the light is best in the last hour before sunset, when the sun is behind you and rakes across the roofs. A phone captures the sweep well, but the smoke and haze can flatten the scene in the middle of the day, so evening is far better. If you are serious about images, the dedicated Fes photography tour covers the tombs alongside the tannery viewpoints and gate compositions, with advice on light and etiquette when shooting people.

Right beside the tombs stands the Borj Nord, a 16th-century Saadian bastion built to keep watch over - and, if needed, bombard - the sometimes rebellious medina. It now houses an arms museum with a collection of historic weapons, and it shares the same commanding view; it keeps normal daytime museum hours and charges a small fee, so it makes an easy add-on if you come up earlier in the afternoon rather than purely for sunset.

Because the tombs are a short trip rather than a half-day in themselves, they fit best at the end of a day exploring the medina below. Combine a morning among the medersas and souks with a late-afternoon climb up here, or bookend a walk that starts at the Blue Gate. For quieter green space at ground level, the Jnan Sbil gardens below the hill make a gentle counterpoint, and our best time to visit Fes guide helps you pick a season with clear evening skies.