Tétouan

Tétouan (Arabic: تطوان, romanized: tiṭwān, [titwaːn]), also known as Tettawen, is a city in northern Morocco. It lies along the Martil Valley and is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 60 kilometres (37 mi) E.S.E. of Tangier. In the 2014 Moroccan census, the city recorded a population of 380,787 inhabitants.[3] It is part of the administrative division Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima. The city has witnessed many development cycles spanning over more than 2,000 years. The first settlements, discovered a few miles outside of the modern city limits, belonged to Mauretanian Berbers and date back to the 3rd century BC. A century later, Phoenicians traded there and after them the site—known now as the ancient town of Tamuda—became a Roman colony under Emperor Augustus.[4][5] In the late 13th century, the Marinids started by building a casbah and mosque in what is now the old city. Soon after in 1305, the scale of the settlement was expanded by sultan Abu Thabit Amir, who fortified the place.[6] Around the early 15th century, the Castilians destroyed the settlement in retaliation for piracy.