Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador) Gallery

Harbour of Essaouira, on Atlantic coast of Morocco

Harbour of Essaouira, on Atlantic coast of Morocco.
Essaouira is a city in the western Moroccan economic region of Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz, on the Atlantic coast. The city was known in the time of 11th-century geographer al-Bakri and, as he reported, was called Sidi Megdoul. In the 16th-century, a corruption of this name became known to the Portuguese as Mogador. The Medina of Essaouira (formerly 'Mogador') is a Unesco World Heritage listed city, an example of a late 18th-century fortified town, as transferred to North Africa by European colonists. The medina is home to many small arts and crafts businesses, notably cabinet making and 'thuya' wood-carving (using roots of the Tetraclinis tree), both of which have been practised in Essaouira for centuries. The fishing harbour, suffering from the competition of Agadir and Safi remains rather small, although the catches (sardines, conger eels) are surprisingly abundant due to the coastal upwelling generated by the powerful trade winds and the Canaries Current. Essaouira remains one of the major fishing harbours of Morocco.
This town was the setting for several scenes of the popular Game of Thrones and as Othello version of Orson Welles