This is a painting of the Chouara Tannery in Fes, Morocco, based on a photo I took during my visit there nearly 20 years ago.

The leather tannery is located in Fes el Bali, the old-town medina, and is reputed to have existed on the spot since sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries, making it about 1,000 years old, give or take a few hundred years.

The area has apparently been restored and cleaned up with a uniform coat of yellow paint since my visit, but it remains a place where the leather processing is done by hand, with no modern machinery, by generations of leather workers who follow their fathers' into the trade. The stench from dye vats was overwhelming and unpleasant, even from my vantage point three or four stories above the work area.

I visited, as most do, as part of a tour with a personal guide. I was brought to the roof of one of the many leather shops surrounding the tannery, and the view was accompanied by a marginally high-pressure sales pitch for leather goods, which I stubbornly resisted (though I did tip my guide generously as I'm certain I would still be in the medina to this day had he not led me to the exit).