Fez or Fes is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the third largest city in Morocco, with a population of 1.15 million according to the 2014 census. Located to the northeast of the Atlas Mountains, Fez is linked to several important cities of different regions; it is 206 km from Tangier to the northwest, 246 km from Casablanca, 189 km from Rabat to the west. The Trans-Saharan trade route may be accessed via Marrakesh, 387 km to the southwest of Fez. It is surrounded by hills and the old city is centered around the Fez River flowing from west to east.
Fez was founded under Idrisid rule during the 8th-9th centuries CE. It initially consisted of two autonomous and competing settlements. Successive waves of mainly Arab immigrants from Ifriqiya and al-Andalus in the early 9th century gave the nascent city its Arab character. After the downfall of the Idrisid dynasty, other empires came and went until the 11th century when the Almoravid Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin united the two settlements into what is today's Fes el-Bali quarter.