Old Portuguese Fort

The massive, thick stone walls of the Old Portuguese Fort, known as the Sqala, rise directly above the crashing Atlantic surf. Portuguese builders constructed this bastion in the eighteenth century to protect the harbor and control local trade. When the sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah rebuilt the fortification years later, he mounted heavy bronze cannons along the ramparts, aimed firmly toward the sea. These rusted iron barrels still rest on their original carriages, pointing at the horizon today.