The Tetouan Medina

Tetouan was rebuilt at the end of the fifteenth century by Muslims and Jews expelled from Andalusia, and the medina they laid out is the reason it is a World Heritage Site: it is small, complete and almost untouched by later rebuilding, with a street plan, house types and craft quarters that read as a direct transfer from southern Spain. The lanes are whitewashed and often covered, the doors are studded and low, and the souks are still organised by trade - leather at one gate, cloth and thread in another quarter, food towards the centre. There is a former Jewish quarter with its own street pattern, a royal arts school teaching zellij, embroidery and woodwork in the old manner, and an ethnographic museum in a bastion of the walls.

History

The ancient town of Tamuda, a few miles outside the city, goes back to Mauretanian settlements of the 3rd century BC, with Phoenician and Roman finds, and the name Tétouan is first mentioned in 9th-century Arabic chronicles; according to Mohamed Chafik it comes from the Amazigh tittawin, eyes or springs. The Marinids built a kasbah and mosque here in 1286, Sultan Abu Thabit Amir fortified and enlarged the town in 1305 as a base against Ceuta, the Castilians sacked it in 1399 because pirates used it, and in 1436 the Portuguese at Ceuta raided it again. At the end of the 15th century Muslim and Jewish refugees from the Reconquista rebuilt it: Andalusians led by Ali al-Mandri, a captain of Boabdil, the last Nasrid king of Granada, raised the walls and filled them with houses, paying the Wattasid sultan for protection and autonomy. From the 1530s, as Spain and the Ottomans fought over the western Mediterranean, Tétouan became one of the main centres of corsair raiding, with Moriscos driven from Spain among its sailors (Wikipedia, Tétouan).

What you'll find

• The Andalusian street plan - the intact fifteenth-century layout of lanes and quarters.
• The trade souks - leather, cloth and thread quarters still grouped by craft.
• The arts school - Dar Sanaa, where zellij, embroidery and woodwork are taught.
• The covered lanes - roofed streets that keep the medina cool and dim.

When to go

Spring and early autumn; the Rif behind the town keeps summers slightly cooler than the interior but the lanes are still hot. Mornings are when the food souks are at their best. Sundays are quiet and much of the medina shuts. The town is an easy day trip from Tangier or Chefchaouen.

Before you go

Tetouan sees far fewer visitors than Fes or Marrakech, which is the appeal, but it also means fewer facilities, less English and more attention when you walk through. Faux guides work the medina gates. Parts of the old city are run down and drainage in the covered lanes is poor after rain. Signage is minimal and the plan defeats most first-time visitors.

Nearby

Chefchaouen is about an hour and a half south; the Mediterranean beaches at Martil are minutes away.

Key facts