Scala du Port
A 18th-century sea bastion where cannons still point toward the Atlantic.
The Scala du Port is one of two great fortified sea bastions that define Essaouira's famous skyline. Built by the Alaouite sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah in the late 18th century — with input from European military architects — it was designed to protect the city's busy trading port from naval attack. The platform runs along the southern edge of the medina, perched directly above the working harbour, and its row of bronze cannons pointed out to sea has become one of the most iconic images in all of Morocco.
Visiting is genuinely atmospheric. You walk the broad stone rampart with the wind coming hard off the Atlantic — Essaouira is famously one of the windiest places in Africa, which is part of its character — and look down on the blue-painted fishing boats, the chaos of the port, and the sea breaking against the walls below. The cannons are Spanish and Portuguese, mostly dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, and they're still in remarkable condition. The views across the bay, toward the Île de Mogador and along the medina walls, are exceptional. Seagulls wheel overhead constantly. This is the spot that Orson Welles famously used as a location while filming his 1952 adaptation of Othello, and you can feel why he chose it.
The Scala du Port sits at the southern entrance to the medina, just above the port gate. It's a separate site from the Scala de la Ville, the rampart on the northern side of the medina — both are worth visiting but they offer different views and feel quite different. The port bastion is generally less crowded and more dramatically positioned. Entry is cheap and straightforward. Morning visits, before the wind really picks up, tend to be the most comfortable.