Escape to Essaouira
As you walk across the Place Moulay Hassan to grab a scoop of ice cream or croissant from the Patisserie Driss, you’d never know this town center, or any part of Essaouira experienced a rich influx of culture and history. Travelers have scuttled their feet in the sands of this timeless coastal city well before the seventh century when the Phoenicians constructed their farthest outpost here. Even the Portuguese built sarcophagus walls around the harbor and Mogador Island. And as recent as 1765, Sultan Sidi Abdellah captured a French architect from a French vessel to redesign the city to make it open to foreign traders. In the 1900s, Jewish settlers and families were welcomed. However, In the 1950s, as the French built Casablanca into its commercial center, Essaouira slipped into stagnation until the hippie and tourist boom of present.