Essaouira is known as Morocco’s windy city. A combination of spectacular beaches, great sea and the almost constant tropical trade winds has changed this city from a hardworking port into one of the world’s greatest sites for windsurfing, kiteboarding and other exhilarating watersports. The city has a dual heritage and this can be seen in the mighty walls that surround this old Moroccan trade centre. Once a Portuguese fortress, rusting cannons between the ramparts still point out to sea, and there is a certain European feel to the construction of the city once known as Mogador. However, the narrow winding streets are filled with the sound of Gnaoua singing, women in white haiks weave their way through the alleys of the old medina, and palm trees cast their shadows across the walls of white-washed houses. At its heart Essaouira is, and always has been, a Moroccan city.