The wind city — a Portuguese-built Atlantic fortress medina that became Morocco's most bohemian escape
Essaouira (population 70,000, Marrakech's Atlantic coast counterpart) is a UNESCO-listed port city built in 1765 by Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah and designed by French architect Théodore Cornut on a grid plan — the only Moroccan medina laid out by a European architect, which gives it an unusual openness and navigability compared to Fez or Marrakech. The Atlantic wind (locally called the alizé) blows almost constantly, keeping the medina cool in summer and the beaches wild enough to make Essaouira the world capital of kitesurfing. The blue and white medina walls, the fish market at the harbor,…
Essaouira (formerly Mogador) was developed as a purpose-built Atlantic trading port in 1765 by Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah, designed by French architect Théodore Cornut. The port handled the trans-Saharan trade routes (gold, salt, and enslaved people northbound; European manufactured goods southbound) and was home to a large Sephardic Jewish merchant community that controlled much of the commerce. The Portuguese had built earlier fortifications on the same site in the 16th century; the present ramparts are Cornut's 1765 design.