City Walls — Attraction in Essaouira

The Remparts and City Walls of Essaouira, also known as Mogador, are among the most iconic features of this Atlantic port city. Built in the 18th century under Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, the fortifications were designed by European military engineers to protect the harbor and town from naval attacks. Their design reflects a unique blend of Moroccan tradition and European military architecture.

Stretching along the seafront, the walls are punctuated by bastions and lookout towers, offering sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean. Cannons, still lined along parts of the ramparts, recall the city’s strategic importance as a trading hub and maritime stronghold.

The ramparts also provide some of the best vantage points in Essaouira. From here, one can admire the crashing waves, the whitewashed medina, and the fishing boats returning to port. The combination of sea breeze, ocean spray, and historic stonework creates a truly atmospheric experience that draws both history lovers and photographers.

Visitors often describe the Remparts as both impressive and tranquil, embodying the spirit of Essaouira itself: a city of defense and openness, of strength and beauty. Exploring the walls is not only a journey into history but also a chance to connect with the timeless rhythm of...

Essaouira , known until the 1960s as Mogador, is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It had 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014. Essaouira's origins stretch back to prehistoric times, and this spot on Morocco's Atlantic coast has been a center of culture and commerce ever since. For centuries, the harbor town was an important trading post as both a seaport and as the northwestern terminus of a caravan route stretching across the desert to Timbuktu in Africa’s interior. Our image shows some of the fortified walls that were raised to protect Essaouira.

Not far from these ramparts are the winding, narrow streets and alleyways of the city's ancient core—the medina. Layers of history are built up around this core, including 18th-century French colonial architecture, and bustling seafood markets that sell the day's catch reeled in from just beyond Essaouira's...

ESSAOUIRA - The minute visitors enter the Moroccan city of Essaouira, near Marrakech, they experience a sense of having stepped into a unique place. It’s a place that carries visitors back into childhood memories and dreams of fantastic and imaginary cities.

It’s a quiet and happy city where the past mingles nicely with the present. The simplicity of its inhabitants and the beauty of its winding narrow streets, its ramparts, its fortress, its gardens, its doors and every inch of ground give the impression of being transported into a medieval city.

Bounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, the city invokes images from the legend of Sinbad the Sailor and pirate stories. Looking from the top of the ancient wall of its harbour, each wave that laps the rocky shores reminds of shipwrecked sea captains and drowned sailors since the time of the Phoenicians before the sixth century, when the city...