History of Essaouira

Essaouira, as a good port city, has been a very old crossroads of towns and civilizations. From century V aC was under the dominion of Phoenicians and Carthaginians, soon to be in the hands of the Romans, time in which it was an area especially known by its production of purple since they occupied the islets that are in front of its coasts To exploit the mollusk that was used to obtain the purple color. In the Archaeological Museum of Rabat are evidences of the settlements and factories of purple of the Island of Mogador.

With the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century the city became known as Mogador. It is here when the famous Portuguese constructions of the city were built. Later it was taken and re-founded by Sultan Sidi Mohamed Ben Adellah in 1764 who gave the current name of the city "Essaouira" with the intention of promoting maritime trade decided to create a port that would shadow the The city of Agadir and also was under this sultanate when the city took the form that has today, giving shape to the main constructions of the Medina as well as the defensive constructions of the city. Since then it has been occupied and inhabited by Arabs and Berber tribes and by an important colony of Jews who enjoyed greater freedoms and privileges than in the rest of the country. The port of Essaouira was one of the most important to the French protectorate, which took great prominence by diverting it to the port of Casablanca.

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