The town of Essaouira

Essaouira was also called Amogdul (kept it well) into Berber, Portuguese Mogador, Spanish Mogadur and French Mogador.

Built on a peninsula swept by the winds trade winds come from the ocean, Essaouira presents a less hot climate in summer than its neighbor of the South, Agadir But she also enjoys a constant temperature in any season (25 °C), contrary to Safi or Casablanca, more to north.

Shouted is the ideal moment to saunter, the camera in shoulder-belt, and to taste one of these mackerel or sardine cracklings, in the emanations of coldly fished anchovies or saurels, in the middle of the chattering of the women who repair the nets of the sailors, not to miss the hour of the nap either, at the hot hours of the afternoon, when the fishermen fall asleep curled up in their nets.

The most attractive spectacle occurs to shouted, when escadrilles of gulls, in a concert of cries, come to plunder under their eyes the stalls of the fishermen.

It is a beautiful neo-classic construction, more decorative than really defensive in spite of the presence of the two watch towers, was built in 1769 by the sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah during the rebuilding and of the fortification of the city. Side of the sea, two grooved columns support a pediment under which three crescents of the moon are engraved, symbol of the sultan Mohammed Ben Abdallah. An inscription the date of 1769 and indicates the name of the architect who built it, the English renegade Ahmed el-Eulj.

The door is connected to the sqala (artillery platform) of the port by a strengthened bridge, to the squat piles and the notched parapet, which spans the small basins where many boats of all the colors are anchored.

This long artillery platform, larger than that of the kasbah, defended the port of the external attacks by a series of crenels and watch towers, equipped with a dozen emblazoned guns of bronze, laid out vis-a-vis the broad one; it ends in a roundabout designed to operate the heavy pieces of artillery. One can still see on the four faces of the keeps, engraved on small plates of thuja, the inscription “Barakat Mohammed”, the currency of the city calling upon the blessing of the Prophet on the city and his inhabitants.

To walk there in the twilight makes it possible to find the imposing atmosphere of this platform, so well used by Orson Welles to turn here certain scenes of its Othello film. The film made in outside on the ramparts and the sqala of the port, obtained the gold Palm of the Cannes festival in 1952. Forty years later, the town of Essaouira - which counts since a Orson-Welles place - celebrated with ostentation the birthday of this dedication by organizing various demonstrations, among which one musical evening moving and imposing with the sqala.

Visit: every day of 8:30 to 12:30 and 14:30 to 18:00.

Paying entry: 10 dirhams (- 12 years: 3 dirhams).

The lane of Sqala, very narrow, skirts the ramparts inside the city where high white frontages with blue windows are aligned; some covered lanes are detached on the line. After a passage under vault, the street widens cabinetmakers hold to with it shop and some still carry out there their patient work of marquetry (tables, boxes, bracelets, curios of wood) which makes the fame of the craftsmen of Essaouira.

The diluted ocher color of the small ramparts of Essaouira confers on this hot and photogenic city airs of Breton city sheltering some mysterious den of corsairs! Two styles of ramparts coexist, representing the influences Arab and French. The ramparts of the type of the sherifs, looking towards the interior of the grounds, are made coated stone of ocher and flanked rough coat square crenels, round doors and of a narrow covered way; the ramparts of the European type, overhanging the ocean, are built without coating, and are equipped with a broad covered way, vast watch towers as well as bevelled crenels. During the bombardment of 1844 by the French fleet, the ramparts were damaged.

At the time prehistoric, one could probably reach foot on the most distant small islands while crossing to low tide. Most small islands formed in the beginning only one island, parcelled out in the course of time by the attack of the waves. According to a legend, the Berber villagers of Diabat carried on water their bulls or their sheep to sacrifice them on the small islands! It is on the island of Mogador that the oldest traces of dwelling of the site of Essaouira were discovered.

Known Romans under the name of Purpuraires islands, the island of Mogador and the close small island were visited during all Antiquity by the Mediterranean merchants: Greeks, Cypriot, Phoenician, Carthaginian and especially Romains left there traces, revealed by the archaeological excavations.

The island of Mogador sheltered in particular the large factory of crimson built by king de Maurétanie, Juba Li.

Occupied and strengthened at the time of Mohammed Ben Abdallah, at last century, the island of Mogador is deserted since the end of its reign and shows only the ruins of an old prison built by the grandfather of Beii Abdallah, the sultan Moulay el-Hassan.

The island of Mogador, populated seagulls and Éléonore falcons, from now on is transformed into ornithological natural reserve.

The visits are currently prohibited there except exemption in scientific matter, from where the delivery of a pass. Price by arrangement with one of the barcassiers of the port. Duration of the crossing: 15 min approximately.

The island offers a wide sight on the coast, the city and bay of Essaouira.

One entered formerly the medina of Essaouira by the door of the Navy; today, the walker will pass rather by Bah el-Sebaa (the door of the Lion) to the angle of the Mohammed-V avenue. Bab el-Sebaa mark the entry of the old kasbah, formerly reserved for the residences of the administration of the sultan and the European consuls, and built before the medina. On the pediment of the door, one can read the following inscription: “Thanks to God starts the foundation of this city, peaceful, ordered by our lord the Imam Mohammed Ben Abdallah, 1718-1765”. After having crossed Bab el-Sebaa, one emerges in the avenue of Cairo.

One reaches the medina by the small place of Bab el-Sebaa, encumbered terraces and coffees Moors. From there, more instructions: you lose in the streets which leave the place Bab el-Sebaa and go on a tour of this medina populated of trade and of galleries of Article Prenez for benchmark the minaret of the belfry or that of the Large Mosque which connect the place Bab el-Sebaa to the place Moulay el-Hassan, splendid realization of style maroco-Portuguese (to take on your left when you arrive at the Large Mosque).

The chance of the streets makes discover many houses - announced by discrete French or Arabic commemorative plaques written - having sheltered some glorious pages of the history of the city and recalling that the whim of the sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah had resulted in building new villas for the Western ambassadors.

In the small street Syaghine, which borders the market on the left after the mosque, the jewellers are grouped.

Passed the strengthened door Bab Doukkala, by crossing the ramparts and the avenue Moulay Youssef, one can see on the left the Christian cemetery, simply indicated by a “Pax” above the door, interesting vestige of the cosmopolitanism of the city. Its tombs are almost with the abandonment, but an attentive reading of the funerary inscriptions informs on the European diplomatic presence with Essaouira and on the sanitary arrangements which had to reign until the end of protectorate…

Other side of Bab Doukkala also, the old coach station is transformed today into buildings intended for the artists.

Much animation in this street, where the small shops invaded the noble White Houses with the blue shutters and are only multicoloured monticules of fruits, vegetables, of spices, behind which the merchants disappear with half, taking forms of man-trunks. The transverse lanes, by far in far arched, show beautiful stone gates of finely carved size, with the Roman arches decorated with zelliges, and know they also a great animation in end of the afternoon. Everywhere, one crosses the draped silhouettes of the women souiries, who carry all the haïk.

Relatively broad and rectilinear, like all the main axes of the city, the street Laâlouj, bordered today of restaurants, testifies to the so particular town planning of Essaouira.

The street Laâlouj crosses the avenue Mohammed Ben Abdallah, where it takes the street name el-Attarine.

More in north, towards the ramparts, in the street Laâlouj, the House of England, now given up, sheltered since 1769 the consuls of the United Kingdom.

At the ground floor, one finds information general as well on the cultural heritage of the city as on the archaeological discoveries (of prehistory to the Phoenicians). It is in Essaouira that the only intact amphora of Morocco was found (amphora of 3rd and 4th century a. J. - C., Aegean Sea).

On the floor various musical instruments used at the time of the festivals of the various religious brotherhoods are presented (gnaoua, hamadcha, aissaoua, etc) or of the marriages and circumcisions, of the carpets and hangings woven by the women of the tribes Arabic-speaking people chiadma or stable-lad bousbaa, of the inlaid pieces of furniture, the incrustations, wood painted, the jewels and decorated weapons, the amulets to the decorations of birds, of snakes or clamping plates, all in charge of magic functions.

Visit 8:00 at 18:30. Closed Tuesday. Closed 11:30 at 15:00 Friday.

Paying entry: 10 dirhams.

Close to the street Mohammed el-Gorry, the Siaghine lane shelters the souk of the jewellers, somewhat fallen today in disuse, but which was formerly one of the most famous places for its jewellers, mainly Jewish.

One still finds some beautiful pieces engraved out of gold and money in filigree, but the contemporary jewellers do not work any more but the money, most jewels coming from Casablanca.

The mellah starts with the street Mohammed Zerktouni. In this district with the dark lanes piled up, towards 1950.18 000 Jews (that is to say 40% of the population of the city), living mainly trade of the jewels and fabrics. All, except for six families, left the city after the independence of Morocco in 1956 and the Six Day old War in 1967. Each year, in September, a pilgrimage attracts Jewish Morrocans and foreigners come to pay homage to the rabbi Haim Pinto, buried in the cemetery of the city.

One counted in the mellah about forty distillings in which prepared a fig alcohol anisated, the mohia, distributed in all the south-west of Morocco.

The old synagog is visited on request.

At If Mohamed Azragui

26 district Lalla Amina

Outside the medina between Bab Marrakech and the coach station. Craftsman cabinetmaker and inlayer, beautiful work of the magnifying glass and the beam of thuja, possible achievements on order. Very accessible prices and excellent quality.

The beach is very beautiful and sufficiently vast to shelter All-Marrakech in full summer. One also comes there Dirtied and from Casablanca the weekend. If the Western tourists still know little about this corner of paradise, the Moroccan tourists, them, flow there. The beach (not to always say) is thus often crammed.

A vast strike borders the coast north of the city but, beaten by the winds, it is pleasant only by very good weather. The winds sometimes violent ones who engulf themselves on the peninsula more support surfing and the funboard the sunbathing.

a pottery gone back to this time and covered the initial ones and name of the admiral Magon was found on the island of Mogador. It is starting from the Roman conquest, at the century apr. J. - C., that Essaouira became one of the most famous workshops of crimson.

Islands located vis-a-vis the city, one extracted this dye bright red from certain molluscs, the murex, particularly abundant in this place. Essaouira and its islands, called soon “Purpuraires”, became, under the reign of the king Juba II, the extreme point of the Roman conquest.

The pilgrimage, celebrating the memory of the godly man, brought back peace between Hahas (berbérophones of the south of the city) and Chiadmas (Arabic-speaking people of north). De Sidi Mogdul, one does not know large-thing if it is not that its great piety was rented by all the Morrocans who, during the great Portuguese invasions, turned to Amogdul like worms one of the protective sites of the kingdom. The port of Amogdul allowed the transit of all the goods produced in Under as well as richnesses come from the Great Moroccan South.

The massive arrival of a Portuguese population occurred only later, at the 16th century, when the kingdom of Portugal discovered the fabulous potential profits of the exploitation of the cane with sugar, then abundant in the area of Essaouira, in the back-country like on the coast, towards Agadir.

Later, Mogador was the only Portuguese city to resist the attacks of the sultans saadiens when the latter undertook to drive out the invader of Morocco. Safi and Agadir fell since 1530 and it was necessary to await the battle of the Three Kings, in 1578, where the king of Portugal perishes, so that the city is again attached to the kingdom of the Gilded Ahmed sultan, the Victorious one.

Saadiens were hardly interested in Mogador, preferring choking heat and the ostentation astounding of Marrakech to him, lately rebuilt. Russet-red cane sugar came from Essaouira. It was exchanged, with the weight, against the Carrara marble that Ahmed el-Mansour had made convey by sea to build his sumptuous palace of El-Badii, in Marrakech.

It was thing made thanks to a French prisoner, passed in the pay of English, the architect Theodore Cornut. Raise of Vauban, and already the author of many fortified towns of Languedoc-Roussillon, it minted his freedom against the plans of a new city. Mogador became Essaouira, i.e. literally “the strengthened place”. To this time surprising them streets go back from the medina, built according to a plan rectilinear and equipped with large and broad arteries cutting itself for right angle. Cornut was not restricted to Europeanize Mogador.

It equipped it with sumptuous ramparts, in Vauban, on the side of the sea, of course, in order to defend this new den of corsairs of the sultan, but also towards the interior of the grounds, in order to prevent any attempt at rebellion of the unsubdued tribes. The sultan and his architect placed batteries of artillery all the way along bay. A circular bastion, the borj el-Bermil, was set up at the entrance of port; edge seam its imposing silhouette on the ocean, it gives to the city of the airs of Breton city. On the island of Mogador, vis-a-vis the port, another bastion of monitoring strengthened, the borj el-Assa, prohibited the passage to any enemy ship while, in the south of bay, the borj el-Fighting pointed its guns on the horizon, defending all at the same time the city and the mouth of the Ksob wadi. This clever system of bastions made it possible Essaouira to push back any attempt at aggression, the guns operating in cross shooting and not leaving any chance to the unhappy attackers.

Essaouira however knew a bloody episode at the time of the revolt algéro-Morrocan woman of 1844: August 15th, at the time when the troops of the sultan were defeats to the battle of Isly, the French battalion of prince de Joinville bombarded Essaouira. The defenders of the city corsair deposited the weapons, thus causing the ire of the sultan who, later, made shave the beard with all the wizards of the overcome army.

The marketing activity of Essaouira did not cease growing throughout 18th and 19th centuries. Nearly 40% of the maritime exchanges of Morocco were then ensured by Essaouira, while more than one thousand of Europeans were established in the medina to trade with the remainder of the country.

The seaside resort of Marrakech unquestionably causes passion. Marrakchis flow there in summer or the weekend, while the world of the windsurfers has the eyes turned towards the peninsula at the time of the world championships which proceed there punctually. There is, certainly, the event-driven one which conveys a certain image of the city. The festival of music gnaoua attracts each year a flood of amateurs which puts the city in effervescence. The inhabitants attend this occasion with a crowd which breaks in the medina, wedged in the lanes, when the concerts are completed place Moulay Hassan. Thus, Essaouira must develop (construction of new hotels) to become a true tourist destination. This will of emergence also results in its integration in the overhead grid. The airport of Essaouira-Mogador, operational since June 1999 (with a weekly connection of RAM), increased in 2000. Its runway makes it possible from now on to accommodate medium-haul airplanes of the type Boeing 737. Since April 2004, a direct flight connects Paris to Essaouira each Thursday. The project of 7,000 beds which will be born in the south of the city makes it possible to consider a restoration of the airport and a lengthening of its tracks in order to increase its traffic.

Let us hope however that this dash does not harm the daily life of the inhabitants nor to the beauty of the site, whose singular charm and the history did not cease fascinating the travellers and the artists of the whole world, such as Paul Claudel, Orson Welles, Maria Callas, Paolo Pasolini…