Chefchaouen

City World Wonders, World

Chefchaouen is a city in Morocco, capital of the province of the same name, in the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region. The inhabitants belong to the Rif Berber tribes and Arabs (minority). This town is known for the blue tones of the buildings.

Chefchaouen is situated just inland from Tangier and Tétouan. The city was founded in 1471 as a small kasbah (fortress) by Moulay Ali ibn Rashid al-Alami, a descendant of Abd as-Salam al-Alami and Idris I, and through them, of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Al-Alami founded the city to fight the Portuguese invasions of northern Morocco. Along with the Ghomara tribes of the region, many Moriscos and Jews settled here after the Spanish Reconquista in medieval times. In 1920, the Spanish seized Chefchaouen to form part of Spanish Morocco. Spanish troops imprisoned Abd el-Krim in the kasbah from 1916 to 1917, after he talked with the German consul Dr. Walter Zechlin (1879–1962). After defeating him with the help of the French, Abd el-Krim was deported to Réunion in 1926. Spain returned the city after the independence of Morocco in 1956.