Taroudant

Taroudant lies in the Souss valley, on the plain between the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas that opens westwards to the Atlantic.¹ The town lies at an altitude of around 240 metres.² In 2024 the municipality had 83,496 inhabitants and Taroudannt province as a whole 858,162.³

The Souss was already a rich land in the Middle Ages: the geographical work Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ describes it as an area of small villages with orchards and much sugar cane and calls it the richest part of the Maghreb.⁴ In the 11th century Taroudant came under the Almoravids, in 1134 under the Almohads.⁵

Taroudant was the administrative seat of the Souss several times. In 1514 the town and neighbouring Tidsi placed themselves under the founder of the Saadian dynasty.⁶ The town wall and the Great Mosque were built around 1523 under the Saadian Mohammed ech-Cheikh; the present course of the wall dates from the 16th century.⁷

Depending on the source, the wall is 6 to 8 kilometres long.⁸ It incorporates 130 towers and 19 corner bastions, linked by a wall walk; nine gates lead into the old town, among them Bab al-Khamis, Bab Zorgan and Bab El Kasbah.⁹ The old town is listed as a national heritage monument, and the walls of Taroudant and Tiznit are counted among the important architectural heritage of the Souss.¹⁰

In the first quarter of the 17th century a principality of its own arose in Taroudant under Sidi Yahya, a grandson of the saint of the zawiya of the Ida Ouzeddagh.¹¹ After Essaouira was founded, trade through the ports of the Souss declined, and Taroudant too lost economic importance.¹²

Today Taroudant is a market town: each of its two main squares, Assarag and Talmoklate, has a souk, and a weekly market is held outside the town wall.¹³ The Berber souk, Jnan aj-Jamaâ, is entered from Talmoklate square; food, fabrics, crockery, carpets and lamps are sold there.¹⁴

The Souss plain is part of the Arganeraie biosphere reserve, designated by UNESCO in 1998; most inhabitants live from sheep rearing, arable farming, fruit growing and the argan tree.¹⁵ The stages of work from gathering the fruit to grinding in the hand mill have been on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2014.¹⁶

Agadir-Al Massira airport lies about 60 kilometres to the west and can be reached via the P1714 expressway. Taroudant also has its own airfield.¹⁷