Another interesting trip from Assilah is a visit to the lively Sunday market in the village of Had Gharbia , 16km north of town
off the road to Tangier.SOUTH OF CASABLANCA
El-Jadida
POP 148,000
In 1506 the Portuguese built a fortress here to protect their ships and baptised it Mazagan,
which soon developed into the country’s most important trading post. Sultan Sidi Mohammed
ben Abdallah seized Mazagan from the Portuguese following a siege in 1769, but the
Portuguese blew up most of the fort before leaving. Most of the new settlers preferred to live in
the new town and the citadel remained a ruin until the early 19th century when Sultan Abd er-
Rahman resettled some of the Jews of Azemmour in old Mazagan, and renamed the town El-
Jadida, ‘the New One’ in Arabic.
The large and influential Jewish community soon grew rich on trade with the interior, and
unlike most other Moroccan cities, there was no mellah (Jewish quarter); the Jews mixed with
the general populace and an attitude of easy tolerance was established in the city. During the
French protectorate, the town became an administrative centre and a beach resort, but its port
gradually lost out to Safi and Casablanca.
The old Portuguese town, now known as the Cité Portugaise, is a sleepy but atmospheric
medina, which was granted World Heritage status by Unesco in 2004. A lack of investment has
helped maintain the integrity of the picturesque Portuguese town’s rambling alleys and
ramparts. For much of the year El-Jadida is a quiet backwater, disturbed only by the crowds of
Moroccans flocking to its beautiful beaches and strolling its boulevards in July and August.