Essaouira

Essaouira is a port city on the Atlantic coast of western Morocco, known until the 1960s by its Portuguese-derived name Mogador. It has 82,962 inhabitants as of 2024. The modern city was a deliberate act of planning by the Alawid sultan Mohammed bin Abdallah, who in 1760 entrusted its design to several architects, notably Théodore Cornut and Ahmed al-Inglizi, and who used French captives from the failed French expedition to Larache of 1765 in the work. The aim was a town suited to the needs of foreign merchants. Once built it grew quickly, and between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century it became Morocco's most important commercial port and also its diplomatic capital. Its old walled town, the Medina of Essaouira, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. Administratively it lies in the Essaouira Province of the Marrakesh-Safi region.