the Blue City

Chefchaouen or Chaouen (Arabic: شفشاون (API: ʃəfʃɑˑwən), Berber: ⴰⵛⵛⴰⵡⵏ (API: ʕɑʃʃɑˑwən)) is a city in northwestern Morocco, built at 600 m altitude at the foot of the Kelaa and Meggou mountains, on the chain Rif. It is the capital of the province of the same name. Its population is 42 786 inhabitants.

The name of the city comes from the Achawen Berber, meaning "horns" , because of the mountainous peaks that dominate and surround it.


Initially instigated in 1415, Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 and completed in 1480 by Sharif Ali ibn Rachid al-Alami, returning from a warlike stay in the kingdom of Granada. The city then hosts a population composed mainly of Andalusians and Morisques and remains forbidden to Christians on pain of death. Only the explorer Charles de Foucauld defied the ban in 1883.

Between 1471 and 1561, the city was ruled by the Banu Rachid dynasty, descendants of its founder, nominally vassals of the Wattasside sultans, and reunited in Morocco by the Saadians.

In 1920, the Spaniards seized Chefchaouen, which will then be bombed by the Lafayette squadron and Franco's troops. The city was not returned to Morocco until 1956, following the repeal of the protectorate.