Kenitra

Kenitra is a major port and industrial city in northwestern Morocco at the mouth of the Sebou River, ranking eighth in the country by population with 507,736 residents in the city proper as of 2024, or about 566,000 including the adjacent coastal town of Mehdya. The site began as a Carthaginian trading post before the French developed it in 1912 as the military and port town of Port Lyautey, which became the best river port in Morocco; it was renamed Kenitra after Moroccan independence in 1956 and grew rapidly as a shipping center for fruit, fish, timber and lead and zinc ores. During the Cold War a United States Naval Air Station operated in the city before its facilities passed to Moroccan military control.