🇲🇦 Morocco
Agadir
Agadir (population 700,000 — the capital of the Souss-Massa region, the Atlantic coast of southern Morocco, 480km south of Casablanca) is the most different city in Morocco from the rest of the Moroccan urban tradition: rebuilt entirely after the catastrophic earthquake of February 29, 1960 (the Agadir earthquake — magnitude 5.7–5.9, depth approximately 15km below the surface directly beneath the city: the earthquake struck at 23:40 (near midnight, when most residents were asleep in their beds) and lasted 15 seconds: it destroyed 70% of the buildings in the city and killed approximately 15,000 people out of a population of 30,000 — a 50% mortality rate making it the most lethal earthquake in Moroccan history and one of the most lethal in 20th-century African history), Agadir lacks the medinas, the riads, the souks and the Islamic architecture that define all other Moroccan cities. Instead, it is Morocco's purpose-built beach resort city: the 10km crescent of Atlantic beach (the Baie d'Agadir — one of the most protected and safe Atlantic swimming beaches in Morocco: the bay faces southwest, sheltered from the Atlantic swell by the Agadir headland, producing calm, predictable waves perfect for beginner surfers and family swimming), the wide beach promenade (the Corniche — the 5km seaside boulevard), the modern souks (the Souk El Had (the largest market in southern Morocco), the Souk de l'Artisanat (the craft market)), and access to some of the most important natural and cultural landscapes in Morocco: the Souss-Massa National Park (the last refuge of the critically endangered northern bald ibis), Taroudant (the "little Marrakech" — the medieval walled city 85km inland), the pre-Saharan Anti-Atlas mountains, and the argan oil forests (the argan tree (Argania spinosa) is endemic to the Souss region and the Moroccan coast — the argan oil (extracted from the argan nut) is the most valuable food oil in the world per liter, used in Moroccan cuisine (the amlou dip — argan oil mixed with honey and almonds) and in the global cosmetics industry (the "liquid gold of Morocco")).