| Agadir’s History |
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Agadir is an Amazigh word of Phoenician origins meaning “collective granary or fortified village”. Until today, this word is still present in Souss region and indicates a sort of a warehouse for all the goods of the tribe. A small conglomeration of Amazigh fishermen settle in a marvelous spot graced with a great harbor, which they convert into a fortified granary from which the word “Agadir” comes. In the twelfth century, this fortified granary is used by the coastal tribe of Ksima. - In the fourteenth and fifteenth century: between 1325 and 1470, European maps refer to this spot as Porto Mesguinam : harbor of Ksima. In the course of its history, Agadir was the object of several battles bringing into conflict the local tribes and foreign powers. - In the sixteenth century, the history of Agadir begins on the international scale when a Portuguese, Joao Lopes de Segueiria, moves into the spot in 1505. Its fishery and workshops rapidly flourish and give birth to a small village of fishermen. This trading post is developed in “Agadir Oufla” which dominates the harbor at an altitude of more than 200 meters. - In 1513, the isolation and insecurity drive Joao Lopes de Segueira to give his installation up to Mannuel the first king of Portugal, who develops the harbor. - In 1541 (March 12th) and after six months of head office, Mohamed Ech Cheikh, the founder of the saadian dynasty, liberated the city from the Portuguese. Thirty years later, his son constructed the Kasbah, which dominates the ocean once again, in order to avoid the return of the Portuguese. During the saadian reign, Agadir and its region know a considerable prosperity. Today, it contains a population of about 400 000 inhabitants, and constitutes a pole of economic development, a metropolis of the territorial balance and a capital of the economic region of the south thanks to tourist industry, agriculture, fishing, and particularly trading.
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