Essaouira: History of a Cosmopolitan City

Essaouira is a city in Morocco located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the Marrakech-Safi Region.
Destination of hippies and rockstars in the sixties, Essaouira is a city with a thousand-year history.
It dates the foundation of Essaouira since the fifth century B.C. by Carthaginian merchants, and taken back by the Berbers in the third century B.C. The city became Arab in the 7th century AD, and was rediscovered by Portuguese sailors in the 16th century who called it Mogador. Today’s urban aspect of Essaouira was redesigned by the architect Théodore Cornut at the behest of Sultan Muhammad III, who decided to make Essaouira a fortified naval base in 1764. Strong in the city was the presence of the Jewish community, whose population was greater than the Muslims in the early twentieth century. The Jewish history of the city began with Muhammad III, who encouraged the Jews to move to Essaouira to facilitate trade with Europe. Until the first half of the nineteenth century, Essaouira prospered a lot, also thanks to the Jewish community. For years Essaouira was the only port of Morocco open to foreign trade, becoming an important maritime port. The city began its decline with the establishment of the French Protectorate of Morocco in 1912 and the development of the ports of Casablanca, Tangier and Agadir. Essaouira has revived in the last fifty years thanks to tourism and culture. The city is now a very popular tourist destination, both by foreigners and Moroccans. The streets of the kasbah are often crowded, and many visitors buy the particular crafts of Essaouira. The medina is UNESCO heritage and is an example of a fortified city of the late eighteenth century, moved by European settlers, and is full of shops, especially crafts. It is a destination for hippies since the sixties, and many rock stars like Jimi Hendrix often visited the city, also attracted by the great musical culture of Essaouira with his Gnaoua. The center of the city is the kasbah, the fortified citadel, protected by Spanish guns on the walls of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The main fortifications are Sqala du Port and Sqala de la Kasbah, which also became movie sets for the Game of Thrones series. Near the Bab Al Manjana gate is the Essaouira Clock Tower, built in 1912, and the clock was renovated in 2012. The city also hosts a Gnaoua music festival, popular music typical of Morocco. The port of Essaouira is one of the most important fishing ports in the country and it is famous especially for fishing for sardines and conger eels thanks to the strength of the winds and the current of the Canaries. Essaouira is also renowned for kite surfing, thanks to the power of the winds on the coast. Today Essaouira is a seaside town very frequented by foreign and local tourists, and make it one of the main destinations for those who want to visit Morocco. City full of history and cosmopolitan, Essaouira attracts visitors from all over the world, and is an example of how a city full of history can be reborn thanks to tourism.