Excursion to Essaouira

Previously called Mogador by the Portuguese, Essaouira is a port city with a fortified medina on the Atlantic Ocean.

The region of Essaouira was occupied since Antiquity in a discontinuous way by the Phoenicians, by the Berbers at the time of Juba II, then by the Romans, it is only from the 16th century that the site is really occupied by the Portuguese who built a fortress and walls in 1506.

The Saadians build an important sugar factory near Essaouira. Sultan Ahmed al-Mansour sends brown sugar to Italy in exchange for Tuscan marble for the construction of the El Badi Palace.

Under the reign of the Alawite Sultan Moulay Ismaïl, Mogador became a port of refuge and a fallback base for corsairs who came to repair their ships.

The construction of the city of Essaouira itself was carried out by Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah from 1760. It continued to grow and experienced a golden age, becoming the country’s most important commercial port and also its diplomatic capital between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. It also became a multicultural and artistic city.

The medina of Essaouira has several districts. The oldest of them is the Kasbah, a fortified quarter where the dignitaries were housed. Nicknamed the “King’s Quarter”, it is accessed via Bab el-Sebâa (Lion’s Gate). There is the rampart that runs alongside the ocean, and a building called El Minzah, formerly known as the “alcove of the Emperor’s café”, whose triple door opens onto the main axis that crosses the city from one side to the other, marking the separation between the old kasbah to the west and the new one to the east.

In 1807, Moulay Slimane ordered the creation of a mellah because the kasbah of Essaouira was overpopulated. Most of the Jews were therefore moved to the mellah. Merchants or craftsmen, cellarmen, jewellers, brokers, peddlers, the number of Jews exceeded that of the Muslims until the beginning of the 19th century.

Its natural, historical and cultural assets, its medina listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, the islet of Mogador, its port dating from the 18th century, and its beaches allowing the practice of water sports (windsurfing and kitesurfing), make the city of Essaouira a quality tourist destination.