Safi, Morocco

Safi (Arabic أسفي, DMG Asfi or آسفي / Asfi ) is a major city in Morocco with 344 800 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2004). The city is the administrative center of the province of Safi and the Doukala - Abda Region.

Location

Safi is located directly on the Atlantic Ocean at a distance of about 250 km to Casablanca in the north, about 150 km to about 300 km and Essaouira to Agadir in the south. After Marrakech in the east is also about 150 km.

Cityscape

The new town, which occupies about 90 % of the total area of ​​Safi, acts spacious and modern, but also stereotyped. The old town (medina ), however, appears alive and earthy in the Portuguese city walls with its maze of streets; Here, living, craft and retail connect to a medieval acting overall impression.

Economy

Safi is - Casablanca - the most important port and industrial center of the country. The hinterland of Safi - especially the region around Youssoufia and Khouribga - phosphate is very rich; the rocky dust and dry soil over a large area blown up, dredged, crushed, processed chemically to form granules and exported as fertilizer. The total phosphate production in Morocco and the further processing and export are in the hands of the state Office Chérifien des Phosphates ( OCP). In recent years, reinforced by health and environmental problems caused by industrial dust and chemical processing in the speech. In addition, other industries ( chemicals, textiles ) have settled in and around Safi in recent decades.

Even as a fishing port is Safi important; catches (mainly sardines) are processed to a considerable extent in canneries. The food preservative (fruits, vegetables, tomatoes ) plays an important role in the economic life of the city.

Safi is also known for its pottery markets and its ceramic industry. In addition to decorative and utilitarian pottery is one here too - from longitudinally split, slightly conical tubes, which are rotated on the wheel - the green glazed roof tiles with which mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and royal palaces are covered in Morocco.

History

Already the geographer Idrisi (12th century) and the scholar Ibn Khaldun (14th century ) reported Asfi / Safi as an important port city. After the Genoese had established a base in Safi already in 1253, its another story, however, lies in the dark, founded mid-15th century, the Portuguese a commercial establishment ( slaves, gold, ivory ) as a stopover on their way to Black Africa and India. From 1508 - 1541 the city was laid in Portuguese hands and surrounded by a 3 km long sloped wall. Due to repeated attacks of the Berbers in the first half of the 16th century the Portuguese the place but had to give up again. As a trading city Safi was still of importance in the 17th and 18th centuries were close contacts to Europe.

Attractions

Outside the old city walls, west of the Place de l Independence, the Portuguese fort Dar el- Bahr was born in the 16th century ( ' sea castle ') with - added in later times - interesting bronze cannons. From the southern tower of the fortress offers a beautiful old town views.

Worth seeing are the Great Mosque ( Djemaa el- Kebir ) with their bare Almohad minaret of time; it stands on the site of the - possibly unfinished - Portuguese cathedral from the 16th century. In the south of the mosque, built in the Manueline style choir of the Christian church architecture was preserved ( Chapelle Portugaise ).

On the eastern edge of the old town, also from the Portuguese time, imposing fortress Borj ed- Dar is located ( "Fortress of the residence" ), which is called (derived from the Portuguese castelejo ) also Kechla. Within the thick walls are a small mosque and the palace ( Dar el- Makhzen ), in which a ceramic museum is housed.

Others

After the city of Safi ( in Europe Tzaffin called ) the morocco leather is named, one in Europe since the Baroque period very popular leather from goat and sheep skins.

On May 25, 1969, on 17 May 1970, Safi starting point of the two runs of Thor Heyerdahl to cross the Atlantic with the papyrus boats Ra and Ra II and demonstrate the possibility of an early cultural contacts from North Africa ( Egypt) to Central and South America.