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South from the Andalous Mosque - out towards Bab Ftouh - you emerge into a kind of flea market: clothes sellers at first, then all variety of household and general goods and odds and ends. At the top of the hill, on the edge of a cemetery area, there are often entertainers - clowns, storytellers, the occasional musician, all performing to large audiences. This region of the city, a strange no-man's-land of cemeteries and run-down houses, was once a leper colony, and traditionally a quarter of necromancers, thieves, madmen and saints. At its heart, close by Bab Ftouh, is the whitewashed koubba of Sidi Harazem , a twelfth-century mystic who has been adopted as the patron saint of students and the mentally ill. The saint's moussem, held in the spring, is one of the city's most colourful; in past centuries it was often the cue for riots and popular insurrections. The potters' quarter used to be located by Bab Ftouh, though they have recently been moved out to Ain Nokbi, some two kilometres along the Taza road. You will see the columns of black smoke and the buildings of the Complexe Ceramique du Maroc down to the left of the road. If you're interested in the techniques - the moulding, drying and decorating of the pots and tiles - it's possible to look around the workshops. Although the quarter is new, the designs and workmanship remain traditional. At Bab Ftouh you can pick up a petit taxi to any part of town (the route up to the Merenid tombs is good for its views), or you can catch bus #18 back to the Ville Nouvelle.
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