Essaouira Harbour Defences

Essaouira  port was built by the Portugese in the 17th century. It was part of a chain of ports down the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Asilah, El Jadida, Agadir, and as this was the time of the Sale pirates they had to be well defended. All these ports are characterised by their walls and "pepper  pot" turrets. Eventually these ports allowed Portugal to trade directly with sub-Saharan Africa circumventing the trans-Sahara caravan route and ending the Ghanaian gold trade. It also led to the "3 corner trade" shipping slaves directly to the Americas without first passing through the Mahgreb.

Essaouira is perhaps the best example. The harbour is defended by a row of islands and some of these had gun emplacements too. 

The actual harbour is ringed by an elevated rampart with gun emplacements 

and we paid our 70p and joined the large number of moroccan tourists enjoying a look round during the school holidays. 

It was easy to see approaching ships would be caught in the crossfire. 

Beloved climbed the tower from where you could see that the emplacements controlled all sea approaches.

The port walls are particularly attractive and one circular "window" had been enhanced for the benefit of tourists with two short sets of wooden steps allowing them to take the perfect picture.