Bab Boujloud is the most recognisable threshold into Fez el-Bali. Its three horseshoe arches, patterned tilework and constant pedestrian traffic create a dramatic entrance, but the gate is valuable above all as an orientation point. Passing through it places visitors at the meeting of two principal commercial streets and at the edge of a medina whose urban traditions extend back more than a thousand years.
The present ornamental gate was constructed in 1913, during the early French Protectorate period. It stands near an older access point and the historic Bou Jeloud area, so it should not be described as a ninth-century survivor. Its achievement is different: it translated Moroccan architectural vocabulary into a ceremonial early-twentieth-century city entrance.