Zellij

The decorative tile work is called a 'zellij'. It is similar to the mosaics of the Byzantines. Here little pieces of colorful tiles, red, green, white and yellow are being pieced together and built up to form this incredible jewel box. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They are everywhere and after a while one gets kind of immune to it and hardly notice how beautiful and intricate they are. Suzanna Clarke in her book 'A house in Fez' speaks of 'Zellij is like a jigsaw puzzle;the pieces are built up progressively into a pattern. You can't simply take some out then easily repair it.' She speaks of having to cut into the ancient zellij in the house she and her husband were restoring to lay down sewer pipes and electrical wiring. One needs to hire an expert who then work on another zellij and it is very costly.
I remember the ancient blue tiles in the blue mosque in Cairo. Only some are left hanging on precariously and the fact that they are so old made them so exciting. They were solely blue and white unlike the jeweled tones in Morroco.