A S T R E E T OF MOGADOR.
Photograph by the late Dr. Robert Brown.
CHAPTER THE TW E L F TH
OPEN PORTS— 8
ES-StJEIRA (MOGADOR)
WITH a history dating only from 1760, when it
was built by Sidi Mohammed XVII. (bin Abd
Allah) the town of Mogador lacks the charm of that
antiquity possessed by most o f the Moorish ports. Low-
l y i n g o n a spit o f rock and sand jutting out Aj)fearanc^
from the province \ o f Haha, which with the
island opposite enclose a fairly safe port,j^-it is hardly
even picturesque, and although presenting a welcome
glint of white walls from the Ocean, there is little
attractive about it. On the land side stretch miles of
wearisome sand-dunes, studded with broom— rising here
and there to over 400 ft.— beyond which are the argan
forests, one of the features of Southern Morocco. A p proached
from this direction, the city bursts upon one’s
view like a mirage between sky and sea,- for amid the
drifting sand the fiat white roofs and scattered mosque
towers rise against deep blue beyond.* It is this view,
if any, which entitles Mogador to be called “ the Picture.”
Mogador possesses few pleasure gardens, but beside
the aqueduct which brings the drinking water several
miles into town, an enterprising European has developed
* This port, rather than Mazagan, is described, by the lines,
“ Strange town, all glittering, treeless, white,
Begirt with sand and seething spray!” 1
1 M a c k e n z i e B e l l , in Sunday Morning o f f Mazagan.