9 things to do in Salé

Start at Bab el-Mrissa, to the south. This 13th-century Marinid sea gate, one of the most monumental in Morocco, once let ships sail straight into an inner basin, a reminder of the days when the Republic of Bouregreg, a corsair city, made European navies tremble.

Head north to Bab Chaafa, an Andalusian-inspired gate overlooked by the tourist circuits. A café has set up inside its tower, and it is the best vantage point over the ordinary life of the medina. Finish at Bab Fès (Bab Lakhmiss), to the southeast, an Almoravid-era gate, among the oldest in the kingdom.

Our tip : pass through the gate, then turn around to look at the medina from the outside.

This is the city's best-kept secret. This artillery bastion sitting on the ramparts facing the Atlantic has no ticket office and no set hours : the caretaker opens it on request, for about ten dirhams. Inside, period cannons ; at the top, a sweeping view over the ocean, the mouth of the Bouregreg and Rabat opposite.

Its strange name intrigues every visitor, and it has a story. In 1260, on a day of Eid celebration, a Castilian fleet sent by Alfonso X landed by surprise at the river mouth, right where the ramparts stopped : the city was sacked, thousands of Slaoui residents taken captive to Seville. The following year, the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub had a bastion built on the exact site of the landing and named it Borj Adoumoue, the Bastion of Tears, in memory of the city's grief. Eight centuries later, Salé has never renamed its bastion.

Insider's tip : come in late afternoon, when the light rakes the ramparts and the fishermen head home. You will very likely be the only visitors.

At the top of the medina, the Great Mosque of Salé, one of the largest and oldest in Morocco, founded in the 11th century, forms with its surroundings the sacred heart of the city. A few steps away stands the mausoleum of Sidi Abdellah Ben Hassoun, the patron saint of Salé, protector of travellers and seafarers.

Access to places of worship is reserved for Muslims, but the exterior is enough to feel the atmosphere : this is where, every year on the eve of Mawlid, the famous procession of the candles takes place, a parade of monumental lanterns carried through the medina to music, a tradition unique in Morocco and kept alive for centuries. If your dates line up, don't miss it under any circumstance.

This is the only monument in the medina fully open to visitors, and it is worth the trip on its own. Founded in 1341 by the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan, this former Quranic school packs into a few dozen square metres all the refinement of Moroccan craft : zellige, carved stucco, sculpted cedar. Climb up to the terrace : the view takes in the rooftops of the medina, the Bouregreg and the Hassan Tower opposite.

The entrance costs around 80 dirhams. You will often be alone there, unlike its Fès counterpart, the Bou Inania Medersa, which is visited shoulder to shoulder.

Our tip : if you're lucky enough to reach the terrace, don't skip it. The view over the medina's rooftops is stunning.

Around the Great Mosque lies the scholarly, spiritual side of Salé : the Talaa quarter and its residential lanes, where studded doors hide sumptuous homes that show nothing to the street. That is the very principle of the Arab house : all the richness is inside.

This is where the zaouias, seats of the Sufi brotherhoods, are concentrated. The Tijaniyya zaouia, whose influence spans all of West Africa, draws pilgrims from Dakar or Abidjan. Closed to non-Muslims, they can be sensed through ornate doorways and the steady coming and going of the faithful. Walk slowly, look up : every door-knocker, every lintel tells of a family, an era, an Andalusian origin.

Souk Laghzel, the old wool market, is one of the loveliest spots in the medina to stop and linger. The square is shaded by trees, lined with café terraces where locals take their time over a glass of tea watching the neighbourhood go by. A few concept stores have opened here in recent years, alongside longer-established shops.

All around, the souks sell to the people of the medina : spices, wool, mats, clothing, medicinal herbs. Push on to Bab Sebta, to the northeast, for the food market, with its fruit, fish from the nearby auction and mountains of mint.

Ten minutes by taxi from the medina, on the bank of the Bouregreg, the El Oulja potters' complex brings together dozens of workshops where clay is still worked as it was a century ago : foot-powered wheels, kilns, sun-drying. Unlike the pottery of Fès or Safi, Salé's remains little known : you'll watch the craftspeople at work with no staging for visitors, and prices are those of a workshop, not an airport gift shop.

Basket-weavers and wrought-iron workers are here too. This is the place to buy a souvenir that is actually one.

Within the medina itself, housed in a former medersa on the Mellah side, the old Jewish quarter of Salé, the Belghazi museum of musical instruments gathers the collection patiently built by the family of the same name : instruments of the Andalusian and Berber traditions, lutes, rebabs, percussion. A little-known place, far from the capital's grand museums, that recalls Salé has always been a city of music, that of the Andalusian noubas as much as that of the brotherhoods.

Not to be confused with the Dar Belghazi in Bouknadel, on the road to Kénitra, run by the same family of collectors : this one is a short walk from the souk.

Salé is a seaside city, and its beach is a fifteen-minute walk from the medina. It is not a beach built for seaside tourism : it belongs to Slaoui families, Bouregreg surfers and fishermen. In the late afternoon, walk towards the mouth of the river : on one side the illuminated Hassan Tower and Kasbah of the Oudayas, on the other the ramparts of Salé.

The best view of the two twin cities costs nothing.