Sefrou & bhalil

Regions beyond Fez are worth discovering. Fez Guided Tours proposes day trips - with English speaking drivers - to Meknes with Volubilis ruins, the Middle Atlas Mountains, Sefrou with Bhalil, and Chefchaouen in the heart of the Rif Mountains. Berber town situated about thirty miles from Fez, Sefrou is known as older than the latter.

It is a meeting point between the North and the South Valley of Tafilalet. Sefrou is appreciated for its waterfalls, its diverse landscapes that can be admired from the shrine of Sidi Ali Bousserghine. It is now an important agricultural center which shows the richness of its products during the cherry festival in June. A few miles by a road that climbs in the middle of olive groves; we come to Bhalil, famous for its cave dwellings. While Sefrou and Bhalil are smaller, they are clearly among the best destinations for one-day trip from Fez.

SEFROU : Sefrou is cut in two halves by the river Oued Aggai and dominated by white houses, simple in their designs. Being older than Fez, Sefrou's history is dominated by religion. It was a Jewish town before Islam was introduced in the 8th century. There is a festival in town, celebrating the cherry harvest in June and many “Moussems” or religious celebrations. The architecture is simple but effective, and the walls of the houses are whitewashed, which gives Sefrou a fresher and cleaner feeling than Fez. Even until the 1950's as much as 1/3 of the population of Sefrou were Jews. The architecture of the Mellah is modest and simple but beautiful and is a sign of local human heritage diversity. There is a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery with tombs of famous Jewish rabbis from hundreds of years.

BHALIL : Located at some 25 km from Fez and 5 km uphill from Sefrou is the village of Bhalil, which still has a number of cave houses (troglodyte dwellings) built into the mountainside.

Still inhabited, the caves provide their occupants with a large single living space used for cooking, sleeping and daily living. The caves and their occupants provide a rare and unique glimpse of a very different Morocco to that of the cities and the Berber villages to be found elsewhere in the country. The village itself, said to have pre-islamic christian origins, is full of whitewashed houses in narrow streets around the hillside, with a number of bridges spanning a small river which feeds the communal laundry.