Chefchaouen Travel Guide

Introduction

113km (70 miles) SE of Tangier; 192km (119 miles) N of Fes

Secluded beneath the twin Rif peaks of Jebel ech Chaouen (the Horned Mountain), the Andalusian village of Chefchaouen ( Shef-sha-wen) is one of Morocco's prettiest. Its little medina is fascinating to explore -- and photograph -- with an uphill maze of quiet, cobbled alleys that twist through rows of blue-washed houses and a large open square where you sit down for breakfast and end up staying for lunch.

Chefchaouen today is a welcoming place, but it hasn't always been this way. Chaouen (as it's often called) was founded in 1471 by Moulay Ali Ben Rachid, follower of a nearby saint (one of many whose tombs were scattered in the mountains). Moulay Rachid used the village as a base for guerilla attacks on the Portuguese, who were expanding southward from their coastal garrison at Ceuta. This anti-European sentiment increased over subsequent decades with the arrival of Jewish and Muslim refugees fleeing the Christian...