The medina of Chefchaouen is painted blue - not uniformly, but in shades that create the palette that photographs celebrate. The origin of the blue is debated: some attribute it to Jewish settlers who associated blue with the sky and heaven; others note that blue repels mosquitoes or reflects heat. Whatever the origin, the practice has intensified as tourism has discovered it, the blue deepening and spreading as the city has become photography destination.

The blue creates visual experience that other medinas cannot match. The streets where every surface is painted, the stairs whose steps are individually blue, the doorways whose frames compete in shade and saturation - the medina is designed to be photographed even as it functions as neighborhood. The residents who maintain the blue do so partly for themselves, partly for the visitors whose photographs have made their maintenance economically sensible.

The Rif Mountains surround Chefchaouen, the town sitting in a valley at 564 meters elevation, the peaks above providing hiking that complements medina exploration. The Spanish Mosque on a hill overlooking the town offers the viewpoint from which the blue medina is best appreciated; the trails that continue into the mountains provide the nature that visitors seeking escape from cities require.

The Rif is also Morocco's cannabis-growing region, the kif (marijuana) that farmers cultivate visible in fields that hikers pass. The cannabis industry is tolerated rather than legal, the complexity of Moroccan drug policy beyond what tourism materials address. The visitors who come for the blue may be offered hashish by touts; the visitors who come for the hashish find it available. The mountains hold both appeals.

The Plaza Uta el-Hammam is Chefchaouen's central square, the cafes that line it providing the spots where visitors rest and locals gather. The Kasbah that anchors one side, the Grand Mosque whose distinctive octagonal minaret rises nearby - the plaza is where the medina's life concentrates. The restaurants that serve tourists on the plaza charge more than those hidden in the medina's depths; the convenience that visibility provides justifies the premium.

The plaza is where Chefchaouen reveals its scale - a small town that tourism has discovered, not a city that tourism has overwhelmed. The visitors who fill the cafes are visible evidence of what the blue has attracted; the locals who share the space have accommodated tourism without being displaced by it. The plaza is public space that remains genuinely public, the integration that successful tourism allows.

The Jewish community that settled in Chefchaouen after expulsion from Spain shaped the town's character in ways that persist after their departure. The mellah (Jewish quarter) that developed, the blue that they may have introduced, the crafts that they practiced - these contributed to what Chefchaouen became. The Jews departed for Israel after Moroccan independence, like most Moroccan Jews; the heritage they left behind has become tourism product.

The Jewish heritage is acknowledged rather than celebrated - Morocco's relationship with its Jewish past is complicated by the present. The buildings that were synagogues, the quarter that was mellah, the traditions that may have originated with refugees - these are visible to those who know to look for them. Chefchaouen's blue may be Jewish legacy; the tourism that the blue attracts is modern continuation.

Chefchaouen's blue medina has become Instagram phenomenon, the photographs that travelers post attracting more travelers who post more photographs. The cycle that social media creates has transformed the town - the blue intensifying, the crowds growing, the prices rising. The town that was isolated into the 1950s is now firmly on the tourist circuit, the buses that arrive from Fes and Tangier filling the streets with visitors seeking the shots they've seen online.

The Instagram effect raises questions that photogenic places face everywhere. The authenticity that photography seeks, the performance that photography demands, the transformation that attention brings - these complicate the simple beauty that drew initial attention. Chefchaouen is beautiful; whether it remains authentically so as tourism transforms it is the question that social media success forces places to answer.