Definitely a Must See in Fes! The largest and oldest tannery, “Chouara” seems frozen in ancient time. In the midst of raggedy white buildings and old houses, are many stone pits filled with colorful dyes and various liquids. They spread like a large palette of watercolors surrounded by colorful leathers that dry on the rooftops. This unique scenery is both intriguing and suffocating because of the foul odor. The tanners are immersed in the stone pits from the waist down and work relentlessly under the hot sun. They are sweaty, soaking wet and dirty. They process the skins of cows, sheep, goats and camels for several days. The process hasn’t changed since medieval times, all done by hand, without the need for modern machinery, which makes it physically challenging. The tanners first dip the skins in a mixture of cow's urine, quicklime, water and salt. This caustic mixture helps break down the leather's resistance, detach excess fat and flesh and hair that remained on it. They then dip the skins in another set of pits containing a mixture of water and pigeon excrement. The pigeon excrement contains ammonia, which aside from being toxic, acts as a softening agent that allows the leathers to become malleable so that they can absorb the dye. The process, which last several days, is both interesting and unsettling to watch. The meticulous work done by these tanners, who proudly preserve this ancient unique tradition, contrasts with the difficulty of the job and the murky conditions.

Pretty interesting to watch and beautiful!!! We stared for 30mins the coming and going. Unfortunately the guide (faking they were guards) were very annoying and even after repeatedly saying no they kept hovering. We didn’t pay them a penny but gave some coins to some of the guys working at the actual tannery (who initially refused!)

Few suggestions - 1. Don't pay more than 1000 MAD for a jacket. Don't buy bags from here, buy from small retailers instead 2. Most arab, uneducated touts showing the stuff are corrupt and uncouth (and can get abusive if you don't tip or buy) 3. If you visit the tannery you are not obligated to buy anything. The people forcing you to purchase are touts, not employees or workers. 4. As said above, go for small retailers instead if you want to help. Avoid buying anything from here.

I was undecided whether to come here or not but curiosity got the best of me. I came here earlyish in the morning around 9 am ahead of the crowds and I recommend doing that. There are signs for it so it's relatively straight forward to find. There is a few shops you can go into and generally pay 5 or 10 to view it. People talk about the smell but honestly it's not too bad. It's fascinating to watch the process in action.

One of the best places in Morocco and Pes in particular, is watching the leather coloring. An entire industry that still deals with the leather like the Middle Ages. If you come to the area on rue Chouara street they will start looking for you to pull you into their store. The roads are very narrow with very high walls on both sides. At the shop there are several floors of leather items they want to sell to you, upstairs they have a view of the coloring area. The place looked very pretty, the smell overall passable, nothing more than what they said about it too much. After seeing that from that point on we see a little less good we moved to another place, where we also gave us a mint to put near the nose that we will not suffer too much. go to Leather Shop with rooftop terrace, from there you will see it better, closer and right a above it

I love this place. Smell is not as bad as I expected. Luckily I got invited by a local for free! so great to see the people doing the work. The leather dyeing industry is interesting. They use saffron, indigo etc as the dyes. Remember to go around noon so you can see them working.

very interesting place the sales person posed us to buy i got a very expensive traveling bag and lather shirt spent abut $500 when i used the bag first time the zipper broker on the first time i used it. just to let you know product is not what they say it is.

The Chouara Tannery is a traditional leather procession facility . The smell was overwhelming, be sure to use some Mint leaves (mostly given out freely by shops owners) to cover your nose.

An amazing experience. In a brief visit you will learn about (and see, and smell) how leather gets colored. The number of colors surprised me the most but so did the types of leather they dye here (cow, camel, goat). It is a must see in Fes. Be warned if you are going to buy anything you must be prepared to haggle.

Hard to describe in a few lines and impossible to include the absolutely horrible smell. I had my nose blocked with leaves of mint and still it was unbearable. Definitely worth a visit though as it offers an impressive colourful image. Do it but first prepare your nose for a once in a lifetime experience.

Cool place, you can see the process of making leather and coloring it. However, sellers in the shop with leather clothes were way too pushy, after we tried few jackets and refused to buy, they still asked for tips for their "wasted time" and explanation why we don't want to buy smth.

Cool place, super interesting to see. Smell is less bad than expected, but definitely there and not for the faint of heart. Vendors are quite pushy so try to engage as little as possible

It was an extraordinary experience to watch the work in tannery. Anyway the leather can be bought from Turkey. Watch the work but don't buy!

Great place to buy anything made by leather. Great experience to be there