Larache

Larache is a coastal city in northwestern Morocco, standing where the Loukkos River reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It is counted among the more important cities of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region and lies in Larache Province. Its history is layered: the ancient Phoenician city of Lixus lies on the far bank of the river to the north, and the present town grew up as a strategic Berber settlement and later a trading centre. Arabic sources first mention it in the thirteenth century, when it was said to have been founded by the Banu 'Arus and named al-'Ara'ish, meaning a trellis of grape vines. Fortifications were added under the Almohads and the Saadians, and in 1471 Portuguese settlers drove out its inhabitants, leaving it empty until the Saadi sultan resettled it. It was a meeting point of many cultures up to Moroccan independence in the 1950s. The 2024 Moroccan census recorded 133,731 inhabitants in the commune.