Ksar es-Seghir

Ksar es-Seghir sits at the narrowest usable crossing of the strait and was the port from which armies and pilgrims went to and from Spain for centuries; it was walled by the Marinids in 1287, taken by the Portuguese in 1458 and held until 1550, and abandoned afterwards - which is why the archaeology is unusually clean. Excavations, largely American-led from the 1970s, exposed the whole walled circuit, roughly circular with three gates, and inside it the street plan of the Islamic town with houses, a bath and a mosque, and then the smaller Portuguese fort built within the same walls when the garrison shrank, cutting across the earlier layout. Seeing the two phases superimposed on one site is the point. It is unfenced and unstaffed, on the shore beside the modern village, with the strait and Spain visible from the walls.

History

The town was probably first a Phoenician colony, Exilissa, and under the Romans a fish-salting post. Under the Almoravids and Almohads it was a major shipyard and the port where travellers embarked for Spain, and in 1287 the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf gave the circular town new thick walls with 29 bastions and three gates, Bab al-Bahr, Bab Sebta and Bab Fes (Wikipedia, Ksar es-Seghir).

What's there

• Two towns on one plan - the Islamic street layout with a Portuguese fort cut into it.
• A complete walled circuit - roughly circular with three gates, fully exposed.
• Houses, bath and mosque - excavated foundations of the Muslim town.
• The strait from the walls - Spain visible across the narrowest usable crossing.

When to go

Spring and autumn. An hour.

Before you go

There is no signage, staff or facility of any kind - without background the foundations are hard to read. The site is unfenced and lightly maintained. It is a short stop, not a half-day. Wind on the shore is constant.

Nearby

Cap Malabata is west; Ceuta is east along the coast.