A few weeks ago, we took a day trip to visit the nearby city of Chefchaouen, or “the Blue City” as it is affectionately known. It is situated in a mountainous region, about 2.5 hours drive from Tangiers, in northern Morocco, between Tétouan and Ouazzane.
The city of Chefchaouen is located at about 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level in the foothills of the Kaʻala mountain in the western part of the Rif mountain range, in northwestern Morocco. The city consists of a Medina, the historical walled town, and a new town that has grown outside the former city walls.
Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 by the Moulay Ali Ben Rachid, a distant descendant of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. The original settlement consisted of just a small fortress, now referred to as Chefchaouen’s Kasbah. The fortress was erected to help defend the area from potential attacks by Portuguese invaders; at the time, Portugal was launching attacks against northern cities and towns in Morocco. This, is the Chefchaouen Kasbah.
This is the city’s main mosque and minaret.
Agriculture is said to be an important sector of the economy in the Chefchaouen area, where traditional subsistence agriculture is practiced on the hillsides and in the valleys – olives being the main crop. Other traditional crops such as grape vines, almonds and figs are still cultivated, although cannabis monoculture has become more profitable than these due to an increased influx of tourists in recent decades. A lot of these crops were offered by “street side” vendors, in what seemed to be a long, never ending narrow souk.
I thought this creek flowing from the mountainside looked pretty.
The city sees a considerable influx of Moroccan and foreign tourists, attracted by its natural landscapes and historical monuments. Tourism is largely seasonal, with 200 hotels in the province catering to an influx of European tourists in the summer. Some of the city’s tourism was also linked to the availability of good-quality, low-cost cannabis produced in the region.
Chefchaouen’s blue walls are a popular subject of interest. There are several theories as to why the walls were painted blue. One popular theory is that the blue keeps mosquitos away. The blue is said to symbolize the sky and heaven and serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life. However, according to locals, the walls were mandated to be painted blue in the 1970s just to attract tourists.
