Azemmour Medina

Azemmour stands where the Oum er-Rbia reaches the Atlantic and was taken by the Portuguese in 1513; they built the walls and the citadel that still enclose the medina and abandoned it in 1541. Inside is a small whitewashed town of narrow lanes with blue doors, a mellah with the shrine of Rabbi Abraham Moul Nes that drew pilgrims, and the Dar el-Baroud, a ruined powder magazine with a gothic window - a fragment of Portuguese building openly visible. Over the past two decades artists have painted murals on the medina's walls, which has become the town's signature and divides opinion between those who find it a good use of blank whitewash and those who think a historic fabric is being used as a canvas. From the ramparts the river, the sandbank and the ocean are laid out. Estevanico, the African explorer of sixteenth-century North America, came from here.

What's there

• Portuguese walls - built from 1513 and abandoned in 1541, still enclosing the medina.
• Painted lanes - murals on the whitewash, the town's signature and its argument.
• Dar el-Baroud - a ruined powder magazine with a surviving gothic window.
• The river mouth - the Oum er-Rbia, the sandbank and the Atlantic from the ramparts.

When to go

Spring and autumn. Half a day, often combined with El Jadida.

Practical notes

The medina is small and quickly walked. Some murals are faded or overpainted. The mellah is largely empty and the synagogue may be locked. There is little visitor infrastructure.

Nearby

El Jadida and the Portuguese cistern are south along the coast.

Key facts