Essaouira
We arrived here mid afternoon. It’s very exciting to see the sea in the distance. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was seeing a cloud bank, a mirage or the sea. It’s the same Atlantic Ocean that kisses the shore of Ireland. However, here is much wilder. Even wilder then the Wild Atlantic Way. There were huge waves breaking on the shore and further out, a few hundred metres, there were even larger waves. Apparently, this is very popular place for surfers and similar sports.
The town looks really nice, prosperous and fairly elegant. I’ve added some Wikipedia blurb about it below.
I’m on the cook group today and one of the responsibilities is buying food for the evening meal and breakfast. So, along with the Chloe, the organiser, we went to a local supermarket. It’s a famous French chain called, I think Carrefour. It was full of pink and beige people. I noticed a lot of enormous mobile homes in the car park. It seems that this is the local watering hole for folk who have a few Dirhams in their pocket. All the items on the shelves were in French and Arabic. I didn’t recognise most the brands as well. The ones I did recognise were astronomically expensive, I was surprised to see.
We went for a ramble along the coast road, what they call a Corniche in the Arab world. Needless to say it’s very orientated towards tourism and there are loads of restaurants and cafes there. The heat, for me anyway, was quite fierce. I had my hat on but I felt my arms beginning to burn a bit. We found a pavement restaurant/cafe and we did for some drinks. There were about 10 to 12 of us and most of them ordered drinks or beers and I ordered a mint tea. We stayed there for 15 to 20 minutes and then rambled back to be picked up by the truck to go to the campsite.
(Please click on any thumbnail above to enlarge the whole gallery for full sliding photos)
Wikipedia factoid
Essaouira, known until the 1960s as Mogador, is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It has 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014.
The foundation of the city of Essaouira was the work of the Moroccan ‘Alawid sultan Mohammed bin Abdallah, who made an original experiment by entrusting it to several renowned architects in 1760, in particular Théodore Cornut and Ahmed al-Inglizi, who designed the city using French captives from the failed French expedition to Larache in 1765, and with the mission of building a city adapted to the needs of foreign merchants. Once built, it continued to grow and experienced a golden age and exceptional development, becoming the country’s most important commercial port but also its diplomatic capital between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century.
Medina of Essaouira was designated by the UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 2001.
Archaeologicalk research shows that Essaouira has been occupied since prehistoric times. The bay at Essaouira is partially sheltered by the island of Mogador, making it a peaceful harbor protected against strong marine winds.
Antiquity
Essaouira has long been considered one of the best anchorages of the Moroccan coast. The Carthaginian navigator Hanno visited in the 5th century BCE and established the trading post of Arambys.
Around the end of the 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE, the Berber king Juba II established a Tyrian purple factory, processing the murex and purpura shells found in the intertidal rocks at Essaouira and the Iles Purpuraires. This dye colored the purple stripe in the togas worn by the Senators of Imperial Rome.
A Roman villa was excavated on Mogador island. A Roman vase was found as well as coinage from the 3rd century CE. Most of the artifacts are now visible in the Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah Museum and the Rabat Archaeological Museum.
Source: HERE
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