The spiritual heart of Fez and one of the most important religious complexes in the Islamic world. The mosque can hold up to 20,000 worshippers and was the most important centre of learning in the Maghreb for the better part of a thousand years. Non-Muslims cannot enter, but you can peer through the gates from the surrounding alleys to glimpse the great courtyard. The attached library — one of the oldest in the world — has been restored and now admits visitors with permission.
Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University
World's oldest continuously operating university, founded 859
A story
Al-Qarawiyyin was founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, a young woman from a wealthy Tunisian merchant family who used her inheritance to build a mosque and teaching centre. UNESCO and Guinness both recognise it as the oldest continuously operating university in the world — older than Bologna, Oxford, or the Sorbonne.