Medina of Essaouira

Essaouira stands on Morocco's Atlantic coast, where the island of Mogador shelters the bay from the wind. In 1506 King Manuel I of Portugal had a fortress built here, the Castelo Real de Mogador, but it fell to the resistance of the local Regraga in 1510, four years later. A Muslim saint buried here in the Middle Ages, Sidi Mogdoul, probably gave the place the name Mogador.

The present town was built in the mid-18th century by Sultan Mohammed III, who wanted to turn his kingdom towards Atlantic trade. He aimed to have a harbour as close as possible to Marrakesh and to cut off the trade of Agadir, which had backed a rival, closing Agadir's harbour in 1767 to send southern trade through Essaouira. For 12 years the sultan had the French engineer Théodore Cornut, with architects from Fez, Marrakesh and Rabat, build the fortress and town; its name changed from Souira, the small fortress, to Es-Saouira, the beautifully designed.

The town is an outstanding example of a late-18th-century fortified town built on the principles of contemporary European military architecture in a North African setting. Until the end of the 19th century it was Morocco's principal port, sending the goods of the trans-Saharan caravans out to the world. The sultan encouraged Jewish merchants to settle and handle trade with Europe, and the old Jewish quarter, the mellah, still has many old synagogues. It was inscribed in 2001.