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Morocco, layer by layer

Forts on the Atlantic, and an international city

For three and a half centuries Portugal held forts on the Moroccan coast. Later, Europe built new towns beside the medinas, and Tangier lived thirty years as an international city.

Portugal took Ceuta in 1415, then Asilah (1471), Safi, Azemmour and others. Mazagan, today's El Jadida, was the last: the Portuguese landed in 1502, built the citadel from 1514 and left in 1769. Its star-shaped walls and its cistern, a vaulted hall turned into a cistern around 1541, where a thin sheet of water mirrors the columns, made UNESCO list it in 2004 as an early meeting of European and Moroccan cultures.

Essaouira is often called Portuguese, but its ramparts are Moroccan: Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah had the town laid out from the 1760s, with a European engineer, Théodore Cornut, and built the sea bastion, the Skala. An earlier Portuguese fort stood nearby. UNESCO lists the medina since 2001.

In 1912 most of Morocco became a French protectorate and the north a Spanish zone. New towns were built beside the old medinas; Rabat's, planned with gardens and wide avenues, is a World Heritage Site since 2012, with its medina, as a shared heritage. Tangier was an international zone from 1925 (under a 1923 convention) to 1956, a city of writers, banks and many languages. Morocco regained its independence in 1956.

Where to see it today

  • Cité Portugaise and the cisternEl Jadida

    The walls are free to walk; the cistern has a small ticket. Go when the sun is high for the light through the roof.

  • The Skala and rampartsEssaouira

    The sea bastion with its bronze cannons, at sunset.

  • AsilahNorth Atlantic coast

    Portuguese walls around a white medina covered in murals each summer.

  • Rabat's 20th-century cityRabat

    The avenues, the post office and the Cathedral of Saint Peter.

  • TangierThe strait

    The Grand Socco, the old legations and the American Legation museum.

Opening hours and tickets change; we list them only where an official source states them. Ask at your riad the day before.

One route that strings it together

  1. Tangier

    The international city, then down the coast.

  2. Asilah

    An easy trip from Tangier by train or taxi.

  3. Rabat

    The 20th-century capital beside its medina.

  4. El Jadida

    The Portuguese city, a day trip from Casablanca.

  5. Essaouira

    The ramparts by the sea.

What visitors say

  • A traveller calls the cistern the most interesting monument in El Jadida, for the light and the reflections in the water; Orson Welles filmed Othello there. Svuda Podji
Sources, checked 2026-11-14
  1. El Jadida and the Portuguese forts of Morocco, 1415–1769 (Wikipedia, with references)
  2. UNESCO, Portuguese City of Mazagan (El Jadida)
  3. UNESCO, Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador)
  4. UNESCO, Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage
  5. Tangier International Zone, 1925–1956 (Wikipedia, with references)
  6. French protectorate in Morocco, 1912–1956 (Wikipedia, with references)

The other layers

The Amazigh heritageTamazight and Tifinagh, kasbahs and ksour, rugs, ImilchilThe Roman and ancient heritageVolubilis, Lixus, the Chellah: Phoenicians, Mauretania and RomeThe Arab-Islamic heritageAl-Qarawiyyin, Moulay Idriss, the madrasas, the Koutoubia, Hassan IIThe Andalusian heritageFes, Tetouan, Chefchaouen, Rabat and al-Ala musicThe Jewish and Hebrew heritageMellahs, synagogues and cemeteries in Fes, Marrakech and Essaouira; Bayt DakiraThe African and Saharan heritageThe Gnawa, the caravan routes, Sijilmasa, the Hassani southWorld Heritage SitesNine sites on the map

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