Earthen ramparts
Ochre walls with dozens of towers.
Anass Sedrati — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Abdeaitali — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anass Sedrati — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anass Sedrati — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anass Sedrati — CC BY-SA 4.0
Tiznit's old town is a walled medina south of Agadir, enclosed by ochre earthen ramparts some 6 km long and up to 8 m high, with dozens of towers. Five historic gates, among them Bab Aglou and Bab Oulad Jarrar, lead into four old quarters named after founding clans, and the town is famed for its silver. Sultan Moulay Hassan I founded Tiznit in 1882 during his Souss campaign, enclosing scattered villages within one wall as a royal stronghold near the southern coast. Tradition ties the settlement to the Blue Spring, said to have welled up where the dog of Lalla Zninia, a parched woman praying for forgiveness, scratched the ground. Tiznit became the Souss's great jewellery market, where Amazigh Jewish silversmiths were renowned until most emigrated in the 1950s and 1960s. The arcaded Place El Mechouar, once used for official ceremonies, is overlooked by the Khalifa palace, built for the sultan's representative; the souks open behind it, with jewellers selling enamelled and filigree silver by weight. The Grand Mosque, rebuilt around 1900, has a minaret bristling with wooden beams. Beside the Blue Spring stands the five-towered Kasbah Aghennaj, a nineteenth-century fort. Tiznit lies about 80 km south of Agadir in a straight line, or 90 to 100 km by road on the N1; allow two to three hours to explore it on foot. Aglou beach is about 17 km by road, at the southern end of Souss-Massa National Park, and Legzira Beach lies some 47 km south-west in a straight line, making Tiznit a natural stop on the way.
Ochre walls with dozens of towers.
Enamelled and filigree silver.
Bristling with wooden beams.
Place El Mechouar, old medina, Tiznit
Shared grand taxis leave from Inezgane, just south of Agadir; a seat cost about 35 dirhams in 2023, per visitor guides, and CTM and Supratours coaches heading south also stop here. Drivers will find parking easiest outside the walls, around Avenue Hassan II to the south-west.
Above all for tizerzai fibulae, pairs of triangular plates with pins that hold women's draped, unsewn garments in place. The craft is celebrated each year at the town's Timizar silver festival.