Essaouira. Beautiful, white and quiet

Essaouira was magic in 1990 when I first came here. Tall white houses, yellow details and blue doors. I could walk the narrow streets over and over again, before I always ended down at the ramparts that protect most of the town. Essaouira was quiet and friendly. But without much facilities, and the restaurant food was dreadful.
Essaouira is still fantastic. Perhaps even better? But it is not that quiet anymore. Tourists are more and more moving in, and souvenir stalls pop up, together with many good restaurants.
Facilities are getting better, and it appears that some of the money is put into making Essaouira more beautiful.
Essaouira is a place with a strong feeling of its past. It has been a trading post for almost 3000 years, starting with the Phoenicians. But the town as it now appears is far younger, about 200 years. The architect who designed the ramparts was French, a clear suggestion of constant international feeling of Essaouira.
Essaouira has a nice little collection of sights. None impressive, but all of great aesthetical value. The walled white town, the ramparts, the harbour and the streets of craftsmen working behind open doors.
Today there are even some artists that have come to Essaouira too, giving the town even one more dimension. Essaouira deserves its visitor's attention, and it is one of the best places to hang around.

First picture: Around the white city, the red walls run - look out for the many nice gates.
Second picture: Real protection was needed for enemies at the sea. Up from the cliffs, the ramparts have been built and are among the finest attractions of today's Essaouira.
Third picture: Handicrafts in wood are the best souvenirs from Essaouira.
Fourth picture: The harbour is beautiful in all types of weather.

Essaouira.The Harbour

Misty and mystical. Essaouira is beautiful seen from the harbour, white and with rare Norfolk Island pines. The harbour is a good place to hang around too. The Moroccan fishermen put a lot of pride and quite a number of hours in decorating their boats. Many boats are built for heavy seas, while the ones seen to the right here seldom go far offshore.

Essaouira. Town walls

Essaouira. From gate to gate

Essaouira. Streets in red and blue

Essaouira is so much about colours. Through the years that people have lived and died here, masons and painters have slowly developed a distinct art that can only be experienced from walking through the streets.

Essaouira. Shopping streets

Essaouira is not yet taken over by tourism, and this is how the streets look like. The water in the street is fresh rain water, and it is all really quite tidy.

Essaouira. Shopping

Shopping in Essouira is best done if you head for locally produced handcrafts, like wood items, which should be possible to buy here at prices well below what you pay elsewhere in Morocco. The exhibitions of wood works are quite impressive, but note that when you look close at the products, the finish varies.
But since Essaouira becomes more and more of a tourist trap, you get plenty to choose from of other products. To the left here, you see a number of lamps, in metal (which is very, very rusty) or in thin leather.

Essaouira. Around town

There is a certain conservative touch to Essaouira, women are more veiled than in other cities, and the streets have a touch of not changing. It is absolutely fantastic! Every corner invites you to a new experience, and even the wear and tear of houses has a character of being vital to the architecture.

Essaouira. The Craftsmen

The wood is thuja, and Essaouira is the main centre of wood carcers in Morocco. Wood carving is divided into two main skills, shaping of everything from pencil holders to heavy bureaus, and creation of wood mosaics and painted or burnt patterns, which often are inevitable parts of first.
After the wood items are ready, they are oiled, in order to get their dark brown colour and a delicious scent, which you soon will be able to recognize smell out from the carvers' shops.

Essaouira. Happy tourism

In recent years Essaouira has seen more and more restaurants put up that provide both charm and good food and — since this place is less visited by package tourists than other popular resorts in Morocco — nice prices too.
This restaurant specialized in sea food of all sorts and it is all deliciously prepared. I had sea urchins here for the first time in my life.

Essaouira. The Ramparts

The ramparts are actually two attractions. The ramparts themselves, and the views over the cliffs and the ocean. Big well-kept canons point at the sea. Local youths hang around the area during lunch breaks. Tour groups walk through the area in as short time as possible. Don't forget to look back — at the narrow streets running parallel to the ramparts themselves.

The cliffs around the ramparts and the Skala further north indicate that the location for the town was chosen in days when protection was a matter of survival.

Essaouira. The Skala

Skala is perhaps not that great attraction after walking through the ramparts? The end of the ramparts, the epicentre of town defence, is relying more upon its surroundings, than its own beauty. Down from the Skala, traders have taken over the area, and turned it into a mixture of workshops and shops.