Tetouan

Tetouan lies some 40 kilometres south-east of the Strait of Gibraltar between two mountains, on the left bank of the Oued Martil, which flows into the Mediterranean about ten kilometres to the east; the city's port used to lie at its mouth.¹ The medina climbs the slopes of Jbel Dersa.²

In 2024 the municipality of Tetouan had 422,757 inhabitants, compared with 380,787 in 2014. Tetouan province has 611,928 inhabitants.³

From the 8th century onwards the place was a link between Morocco and Andalusia.⁴ In the 15th century families from Andalusia refounded the city⁵; its builder is held to be Ali al-Mandri, who came from Granada.⁶ From the beginning of the 17th to the end of the 18th century the medina continued to grow, as its fortifications, buildings and street plan show.⁷

A wall about five kilometres long with seven gates encloses the medina. Main streets connect the gates and lead to squares, funduqs, mosques, zawiyas and the quarters of the craftsmen and traders; narrow lanes branch off from them into the residential districts.⁸ UNESCO inscribed the medina on the World Heritage List in 1997.⁹

From 1913 to 1956 Tetouan was the capital of the Spanish protectorate.¹⁰ During this period the Ensanche was built next to the old town, a district of radial and grid-pattern streets, squares and gardens that joins the medina seamlessly. In 2024 Morocco placed the medina and the Ensanche together on its Tentative List for World Heritage as the “Historic Centre of Tetouan”.¹¹

UNESCO highlights the Dar Sanaa crafts school and the Institut national des beaux-arts as evidence of an old craft tradition.¹² Since 2017 Tetouan has been a member of the Creative Cities Network in the field of Crafts and Folk Art. The crafts named are zellige, taajira embroidery, inlaid and painted wood, and wrought iron; the city has almost 6,000 craft businesses, and more than 150 young craftspeople join them each year.¹³

On the coast off Tetouan lies the prefecture of M’diq-Fnideq, with the municipalities of Martil, M’diq and Fnideq. Martil is the largest of them and grew from 64,355 to 95,896 inhabitants between 2014 and 2024.¹⁴ The port of M’diq, 13 kilometres from Tetouan, serves fishing and pleasure boats; a new marina was added in 2009.¹⁵

At the Tetouan weather station, averaged over the years 1991 to 2020, some 655 millimetres of precipitation fall a year, almost all between October and May; in July it is less than one millimetre. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 17.4 °C in January to 30.3 °C in August.¹⁶