Eight Cities from Agadir to Sharm El Sheikh: Morocco to Sinai

Agadir sits on the Atlantic just north of the mouth of the Souss River, and almost all of it was rebuilt after the 1960 earthquake that destroyed the old city. Its wide boulevards and beachfront hotels come from that planning, and it is now both a leading Moroccan seaside resort and a fishing port.

Meknes is one of Morocco's four Imperial cities. The Almoravids founded it in the 11th century as a military settlement, and Sultan Ismail, who ruled from 1672 to 1727, made it his capital and gave it a massive palace complex, fortifications and monumental gates. The 2024 census recorded 551,503 residents.

Setif lies about 1,100 meters up in eastern Algeria, 270 kilometers east of Algiers, and counts as the country's trade capital with three industrial zones. Its history runs from Phoenician and Numidian times to Roman Mauretania Sitifensis, and the protests and massacre of 8 May 1945 began here, an event that helped lead to the Algerian War of independence.

Sfax is Tunisia's second most populous city after Tunis, about 270 kilometers southeast of the capital. Founded in AD 849 on the ruins of the ancient town of Taparura, it is the country's largest fishing port, and its economy rests on phosphate processing, olive and nut processing and international trade.

Benghazi began as a Greek colony called Euesperides around 525 BC and was refounded in the 3rd century BC as the Ptolemaic city of Berenice. After Ottoman rule Italy took it in 1911, and in 2011 it became the starting point of the uprising against Gaddafi. It is now the second largest city in Libya and the largest in Cyrenaica.

Luxor stands on the Nile in Upper Egypt on and around the site of ancient Thebes, once the capital of pharaonic Egypt. The temples of Karnak and Luxor are here, and across the river lie the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, which is why tourism is the core of its economy. About 285,000 people live in the city.

Aswan is just north of the Aswan Dam at the first cataract of the Nile and served as the southern frontier of ancient Egypt. Its quarries supplied granite for many ancient monuments and still operate, and five sites here belong to the UNESCO Nubian Monuments, including the Unfinished Obelisk and the town of Elephantine.

Sharm El Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea, was a fishing village and military outpost before Hosni Mubarak named it the City of Peace in 1982. It then grew into a major resort, drawing more than 3 million visitors in 2024 for its diving among some 250 coral reefs.