Visiting seaside Essaouira, Morocco

Hello friends,

Today I am going to talk about Essaouira, formerly known as Mogador, a beautiful coastal town of Morocco. The word "Essaouira" means "the little rampart", a reference to the fortress walls that enclose part of the city (1).

I visited this beautiful town back in January 2009, on a sunny winter day with a few drizzly spells. Although it's been such a long time ago, looking at the pictures makes me remember the excursion, when I was walking along the ramparts, breathing the fresh air, and hearing all those sea gulls.

Essaouira has been occupied since prehistoric times. It was frequented by the Romans too, who used the molluscs from an island in the bay to stain their imperial togas. It was the Portuguese though who first built a fortress here in 1506, and developed a marketplace for gold and ivory, slaves and spices (2). The king of Portugal Manuel I named the place "Castelo Real de Mogador". He lost his fortress four years later to the local people, and subsequently Essaouira became residence of pirates.

Much later, towards the end of the 18th century, the Sultan of Morocco Mohammed III employed the French architect Théodore Cornut to rebuild the fortified city as we see it today.

Impressions from Essaouira

And that's the end of today's post. I hope you liked it, and that you will follow me to the next one. Have a good day and speak to you soon!

References
1.Text from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essaouira
2.Text from http://www.cntraveller.com/recommended/cities/coastal-town-of-essaouira/page/the-background-to-essaouira.