- ESSOUIRA 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-Bakriand, as he reported, was called Sidi Megdoul. In the 16th-century, a corruption of this name became known to the Portuguese as Mogadoror Mogadore. The Berber and Arabic names mean the wall, a reference to the fortress walls that originally enclosed the city.
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- Essaouira has long been considered as one of the best anchorages of the Moroccan coast. The Carthaginian navigator Hanno visited in the 5th century BC and established the trading post of Arambys.Around the end of the 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE, the Berber kingJuba II established a Tyrian purple factory, processing the murex and purpura shells found in the intertidal rocks at Essaouira and the Iles Purpuraires. This dyecolored the purple stripe in Imperial Roman Senatorial togas.A Roman villa was excavated on Mogador island.[1] A Roman vase was found as well as coinage from the 3rd century CE. Most of the artifacts are now visible in theSidi Mohammed ben Abdallah Museum and the Rabat Archaeological Museum.
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The festival provides a platform for exchanges and a meeting point of music and dialogue between foreign artists and the mystical Gnaoua (also Gnawa) musicians. In this melting-pot of musical fusion, the Gnaoua masters invite players of jazz,pop, rock and contemporary World music to explore new avenues. The festivals see up to 500,000 visitors every year over four days, many of the performances can be viewed for free, which complicates comparison with other festivals
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- The present city of Essaouira was built during the 18th century. Mohammed III, wishing to reorient his kingdom toward the Atlantic for increased exchanges with European powers, chose Mogador as his key location. One of his objectives was to establish a harbour at the closest possible point from Marrakesh.[6] The other was to cut off trade from Agadir in the south, which had been favouring political rival of Mohammed III, and the inhabitants of Agadir were forced to relocate to Essaouira.[6]For 12 years, Mohammed III directed a French engineer, Théodore Cornut, and several other European architects and technicians to build the fortress and city along modern lines.[6][7] Originally called "Souira" ("the small fortress"), the name became "Es-Saouira" ("the beautifully designed").Mohammed III took numerous steps to encourage the development of Essaouira: the harbour of Agadir to the south was closed off in 1767, so that southern trade should be redirected through Essaouira. European communities in the northern harbour of Rabat-Salé were ordered to move to Essaouira through an ordinance of January 21, 1765.Thédore Cornut designed and built the city itself, particularly the Kasbah area, corresponding to the royal quarters and the buildings for Christian merchants and diplomats. Other parts were built by other foreigners. The harbour entrance, with the "Porte de la Marine", was built by an Englishrenegade by the names of Ahmed el Inglizi("Ahmed the English") or Ahmed El Alj ("Ahmed the Renegade").[7] The two "scalas" with their fortifications (the Harbour scala and the Northern scala) were built by Genoese engineers.From the time of its rebuilding by Muhammad III until the end of the nineteenth century, Essaouira served as Morocco's principal port, offering the goods of the caravan trade to the world. The route brought goods from sub-Saharan Africa toTimbuktu, then through the desert and over the Atlas mountains to Marrakech. The road from Marrakech to Essaouira is a straight line, explaining the king's choice of this port among the many that the Moroccan coast offers.
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