Essaouira, formerly Mogador, Atlantic port city, western Morocco, midway between Safi and Agadir. The site was occupied by Phoenicians and then Carthaginians and was mentioned in the chronicles of the Carthaginian explorer Hanno (5th-century bc). Medieval charts show it as Mogador, a corruption of an Amazigh (Berber) word for “safe anchorage.” It stands on a peninsula 10–20 feet (3–6 meters) above sea level, and, at times with heavy tides, it is almost an island city. Its harbor is sheltered by offshore islets and a rocky headland, but the channel is narrow and dangerous.
