Essaouira — All about Essaouira

Mogador in Antiquity

The bay, sheltered from the wind by Mogador island, has been occupied since prehistory and is considered one of the best anchorages on the Moroccan coast. In the 5th century BC the Carthaginian navigator Hanno is said to have founded a trading post here.

Around the start of our era, the Berber king of Mauretania Juba II set up a purple-dye works here, extracting the dye from shellfish gathered on the rocks of the coast and the Purple Isles. This purple coloured the stripe on Roman senators' togas. A Roman villa, an amphora and 3rd-century coins have been found on the island; the objects are shown in Essaouira and at the Rabat museum.

Portuguese, corsairs and rivals (1506-1631)

In the Middle Ages a saint, Sidi Mogdoul, was buried here: his name is probably the origin of "Mogador". In 1506 King Manuel I of Portugal had a fortress built, the Castelo Real de Mogador; it fell in 1510 to local resistance led by the Regraga brotherhood.

In the 16th century Spain, England, the Netherlands and France tried in vain to take it. The port exported sugar and molasses and served as a corsair haven. In 1629 the French admiral Isaac de Razilly landed about a hundred men on the island but re-embarked them a few days later; in 1631 France signed a trade treaty with the sultan.

The city designed by the sultan (1760-1770)

The present town was the project of Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, who wanted to turn the kingdom towards the Atlantic and European trade. He sought a port as close as possible to Marrakech and wanted to cut off trade through Agadir, which favoured a rival: he closed Agadir's port in 1767 and moved some of its inhabitants to the new town.

For twelve years the French engineer Théodore Cornut, helped by Moroccan architects from Fes, Marrakech and Rabat, laid out the town and kasbah on a regular plan, rare in Morocco. The Sea Gate is the work of an English convert, Ahmed el-Inglizi. The name went from "Souira", the little fortress, to "Es-Saouira", the well-designed. By an ordinance of 21 January 1765, European merchants in Rabat-Salé had to move here.

The port of caravans and tujjar

From its founding until the late 19th century, Essaouira was Morocco's main port. Caravan goods from sub-Saharan Africa, via Timbuktu and Marrakech, were shipped from here to Europe: the road from Marrakech to Essaouira is almost straight. In the 19th century its trade was roughly double Rabat's, and European powers opened consulates and trading houses here.

The sultan encouraged Jewish merchants to settle and handle trade with Europe. In 1867 a French botanist estimated that half of the 12,000 inhabitants were Jewish. The decline of the caravans, then the creation of Israel and Moroccan independence led to their departure; Essaouira's last Jewish resident died in 2025. King Mohammed VI visited Bayt Dakira, the Jewish heritage house, on 15 January 2020.

Bombardments and protectorate (1844-1956)

Because Morocco supported the Algerian emir Abd el-Kader, the Prince de Joinville's French fleet bombarded Mogador and briefly occupied the island on 16 August 1844. In 1864 an American Confederate ship, the CSS Georgia, even fired on the coast after its crew was refused landing.

From 1912 to 1956 the town was part of the French protectorate. It served as a base for 8,000 soldiers for the expedition against the Dar Anflous kasbah, taken on 25 January 1913. The French presence left a Franco-Moroccan school, still visible, and many residents still speak fluent French.

Othello, hippies and UNESCO

In the early 1950s Orson Welles stayed at the Hôtel des Îles, just south of the walls, while filming his "Othello", which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1952. From the late 1960s the town drew hippies, musicians and painters.

The medina was listed as UNESCO World Heritage in 2001, as an example of an 18th-century fortified town built on European principles in a North African setting. The port Skala was a set for the series "Game of Thrones". Every June the Gnawa festival brings together musicians from around the world.

Gnawa music

Inherited from descendants of West Africans, the Gnawa tradition combines guembri, qraqeb and trance; it has been on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2019, and Essaouira is its capital every June.

Thuya wood

The cabinet-makers under the ramparts work thuya burl, the fragrant wood of the region, inlaid with lemonwood and mother-of-pearl.

The Souiris

Residents are known as calm and welcoming, like their town. Fishermen, thuya woodworkers, Gnawa musicians and artists live side by side; there's also a foreign community settled since the 1960s.

Between Arabic and Tashelhit

The town sits on the border between the Arab Chiadma tribes to the north and the Amazigh Haha to the south: you hear darija and Tashelhit, often within the same family.