The village of Oulja, 3km southeast of Salé, is home to the Complexe des Potiers, which produces a huge range of ceramics. The potters work at the back of the complex, bringing in clay from a rich seam in the surrounding hills (you’ll see it on the left as you drive in), throwing and turning it on kick wheels, then glazing and firing the finished pieces in enormous kilns. A firing takes 15 hours and reaches 900°C. Fine domestic pottery is fired in gas kilns designed to reduce environmental degradation and air pollution, but more rustic pieces are still fired in kilns fuelled by twigs and leaves from nearby eucalyptus forests.
The centre has a cafe and some workshops used by basket weavers and blacksmiths. To get here, take a petit taxi from Salé (about Dh18) or catch bus 35 or 53 (Dh4) from Bab Khebaz.
