Agadir’s most beautiful site, the citadel looks down on the ocean and the town … from a height of 236 metres, an ideal spot to admire the sun setting over the bay. It was built in 1540 by Mohammed Ech-Cheikh (founder of the Saadian Dynasty) as a base for his besieging army and later served to protect the town from Portuguese attack. Two centuries later, in 1752, the place was reinforced by Moulay Abdallah, who established a garrison of two thousand men there. Now, after the earthquake, only a few partially repaired sections of the ramparts remain, along with the main gate, over which an inscription in Dutch reading, “Fear God and Respect the King” reminds us that the Netherlands established a trading post there in 1746 under the sovereignty of the Saadian Sultan.