El Jadida

El Jadida is a port city on Morocco Atlantic coast in the Casablanca-Settat region, about 96 kilometers south of Casablanca, with a population of 237,464 as of 2024. Originally founded by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century as the fortified town of Mazagan, with star-shaped walls designed against Renaissance-era siege technology, it remained under Portuguese control until 1769 before being revived under Sultan Abd al-Rahman and renamed al-Jadida, meaning the New, in 1820. Today the city economy rests on heritage tourism, its historic core having been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, together with the nearby Jorf Lasfar industrial complex that processes the region's phosphate reserves.