Ouezzane: Morocco's Green Hill Town of Saints and Olives

Most travellers in northern Morocco drive straight past Ouezzane. The road from Chefchaouen to Fez skirts its hillside, drivers glance up at a white-and-green town stacked against a mountain, and keep going. That is precisely why it is worth stopping.

Ouezzane (also written Ouazzane) sits at about 600 metres, spread across the slopes of Jbel Bou Hellal where the Rif mountains soften into the olive plains below. It is the capital of its own province in the Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma region, home to roughly sixty thousand people, and it has been a place of pilgrimage for more than three centuries — for Muslims, and for Moroccan Jews too.

What you will not find here is a tourist circuit. There are no touts, no carpet showrooms, no queues. There is a working market town that happens to be beautiful, deeply hospitable, and almost entirely yours.

A little history

Ouezzane owes its existence to one man. In the middle of the 17th century, Moulay Abdallah ech-Cherif (1596–1678), a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad through the Idrisid line, founded a zaouia — a Sufi lodge and school — on this hillside. Northern Morocco was politically fragmented at the time, and his brotherhood, the Wazzaniyya, grew into one of the most influential spiritual networks in the country.

The town that grew around the lodge was never walled. That single fact shaped its character: Ouezzane became known as Dar Dmana, the "House of Guarantee" or "House of Safety", a place where anyone in trouble could claim sanctuary. Over the centuries that promise drew in people of every background, including Jewish families from the north and from Andalusia, who lived here for generations and left their own holy places in the surrounding countryside.

The pilgrims still come. The annual celebration of Moulay Abdallah ech-Cherif fills the medina with devotees and Sufi chanting, and the shrines of the old town are visited quietly all year round. For a town of this size, Ouezzane carries an unusual weight of reverence — you feel it in how people speak about their own streets.

A street scene in Ouezzane, northern Morocco.

What to see

Ouezzane is small, and that is part of its charm. Everything of interest sits within a compact medina you could cross in twenty minutes — if you did not keep stopping.

The green medina

The old town is famous for its colour. Where Chefchaouen is blue, Ouezzane is green: doors, window frames, railings and whole wall panels painted in mint, emerald and sea-green against whitewash. The effect is gentler and less staged than in its blue neighbour, mostly because nobody painted it for photographs. Lanes climb in steps and curves, and in places they tunnel beneath houses through low arched passages the locals call sabats — cool, dim and lovely on a hot afternoon.

The zaouia and the octagonal minaret

In the Dar Sqaf quarter, the oldest part of the medina, stands the great zaouia of the Wazzaniyya brotherhood, with its distinctive octagonal green-tiled minaret — the single most recognisable sight in town. The mausoleum of Moulay Abdallah ech-Cherif lies on its north side, and the complex has housed a library of manuscripts since the early 18th century. As at most working mosques and shrines in Morocco, non-Muslim visitors do not enter, but the minaret, the painted doorways and the small square in front of them are wonderful from the outside, and nobody will hurry you along.

The qaisariya and the craft streets

The covered market quarter is still a genuine artisans' district rather than a souvenir arcade. Ouezzane is known for the heavy woollen djellaba ouazzania, for carpentry and mashrabiya woodwork, for ironwork, and for weaving. Even if you buy nothing, watching a tailor finish a hood by hand is worth the walk.

The weekly souk and the olive mills

The market brings in farmers from across the province with figs, thyme honey, vegetables and, above all, olive oil. The region produces tens of thousands of tonnes of olives each year, and the local oil — sold under the name Ouazzania — is shipped as far as Europe. Several small mills press within sight of the town; in late autumn the whole valley smells of crushed fruit.

The view from above

The upper edge of the medina opens onto the slopes of Jbel Bou Hellal and a long view over silver-grey olive groves rolling south. Go late in the afternoon, when the light turns the hills gold.

Ouezzane, Morocco.

A day trip nearby

Asjen (Azjen), a village roughly 9 km west of Ouezzane, holds one of the most important Jewish pilgrimage sites in Morocco: the shrine of Rabbi Amram ben Diwan, an 18th-century rabbi from Hebron who taught in the region and died here in 1782. His tomb, set among trees in a walled enclosure, draws pilgrims from Israel, France and across Morocco for the annual hiloula, and it has long been visited by Muslims as well as Jews — a quiet illustration of what "House of Safety" meant in practice.

The drive takes well under half an hour by grand taxi or hired car, the ground at the site is mostly level, and a visit need not take more than an hour or two. Outside pilgrimage dates it is a peaceful, shaded place.

If you want a second outing, Chefchaouen lies about 60–70 km north, roughly 1 to 2 hours depending on traffic and the kind of transport you choose — close enough that many visitors treat Ouezzane and Chefchaouen as two halves of one trip.

The Rif countryside around Ouezzane.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

Ouezzane is rewarding, but it is built on a hillside, and we would rather you knew that before you arrive.

• It is steep. The medina climbs the slope of Jbel Bou Hellal, and many lanes are stepped or cobbled. There is no flat circuit through the old town. If stairs and gradients are difficult, plan to enjoy the lower town and the square at the foot of the medina, and make one short, chosen climb rather than a long wander.
• Stay low, not high. Accommodation in and around the lower town keeps you close to cafés, taxis and the bus stop. A guesthouse high in the medina may be charming, but you will pay for it with the luggage.
• Shoes matter more than usual. Worn cobbles, occasional loose steps, and shaded passages that stay damp after rain. Flat soles with grip, and a walking stick if you use one.
• Avoid high summer. July and August regularly reach the mid-thirties Celsius (mid-nineties Fahrenheit) and the hillside holds the heat. If you must come then, walk before eleven and after five.
• Winter is mild but genuinely wet. November is the rainiest month here, and streets become slippery. Bring a light waterproof rather than an umbrella — the lanes are too narrow for one.
• Tourist infrastructure is thin. Few hotels, limited English, no organised tours. This is a plus for atmosphere and a minus for convenience. A hired car with a driver, or a half-day with a local guide arranged through your accommodation, removes most of the friction.
• Take cash. Banks and ATMs exist in the lower town, but small shops, the souk and rural taxis are cash-only.
• Dress modestly near the shrines. Covered shoulders and knees. It is a pilgrimage town, and the courtesy is noticed and appreciated.

Rooftops and houses in Ouezzane.

What to eat

This is Jbala country — the mountain farming culture of northern Morocco — and the cooking is rustic, seasonal and generous rather than refined.

Start with the olive oil. Ask for bread and oil at breakfast and you will be given something peppery and green that bears no resemblance to supermarket oil at home. Buy a bottle at the souk; it travels well in checked luggage if you wrap it carefully.

Beyond that, look for thyme honey from the hills, fresh and dried figs in late summer and autumn, and the slow-cooked tagines of the region — chicken with preserved lemon and olives, lamb with prunes. In cooler months, cafés serve thick bean and lentil soups, and harira appears everywhere at dusk during Ramadan. Flatbread comes from communal wood-fired ovens in the medina, and it is usually still warm.

Restaurants in Ouezzane are simple: grill houses, café-terraces on the main square, a handful of places on the edge of town with gardens and views. Do not expect wine lists; do expect mint tea poured from a great height, and portions sized for farmers.

The APIA restaurant in Ouezzane.

Getting there

Our verdict

Ouezzane is not a destination in the way Marrakech or Fez are destinations. It is a detour — and the best kind, the sort that quietly becomes the part of the trip you talk about afterwards.

Go if you like places where nothing is performed for visitors, where a shopkeeper will spend twenty minutes explaining his town because almost nobody asks. Go if you want green lanes instead of blue ones, with no crowd between you and the photograph. Go for the olive oil.

Think twice if slopes and steps are genuinely hard for you, or if you need the reassurance of good hotels and English-speaking staff. Even then, there is a compromise worth considering: base yourself in Chefchaouen, where comfort is easier to find, and come down to Ouezzane for a day with a driver. You will still get the minaret, the souk, the shrine at Asjen and the long view over the olives — which is most of what makes this town special.

A view of Ouezzane.

“In Ouezzane the doors are green, the hills are silver with olives, and no one is in a hurry — least of all you.”

Photo credits

• Ouezzane-300tdorg-3: Jurgen from Netherlands, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ouezzane: Ces photos proviennent de l'école Bni Malek dans le cadre du concours WikiChalle, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ouezzane-300tdorg-1: Jurgen from Netherlands, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ouezzane 3237709401: Jean-François Gornet from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ouezzane-300tdorg-2: Jurgen from Netherlands, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• منتجع أبيا وزان: RACHID BAYA, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Ouezzane 2: Ces photos proviennent de l'école Bni Malek dans le cadre du concours WikiChalle, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons