Tiznit: Morocco's Silver Town Behind Pink Walls

Most visitors to southern Morocco drive straight past Tiznit. The road from Agadir sweeps around its ochre walls, and the coaches carry on toward the desert or the surf beaches. That is exactly why we like it.

Step through one of the gates and the noise stops. Inside roughly five kilometres of pink-brown ramparts sits a small, flat market town where silversmiths still hammer at their benches, where old men play cards in the shade of the main square, and where nobody will press you to buy a carpet.

For travelers over 60, Tiznit has one quiet advantage over Morocco's grander cities: there are almost no hills. The medina lies on a plain, the distances are short, and an afternoon here is a stroll rather than a climb.

A little history

Tiznit is young by Moroccan standards. In 1881, Sultan Moulay Hassan I chose this spot — where several tribes had already settled around a spring — as a base from which to hold the restless south. Within a few years his masons had thrown a great wall around the settlement, punctuated by towers and gates, and the scattered villages inside became one town.

The silver came with the walls. Jewish goldsmiths were moved into the new fortified town, and their workshops gave Tiznit the reputation it still enjoys today as Morocco's capital of silver. The craft passed from family to family, and it never really left: more than a hundred workshops and shops still work silver here, supplying dealers from Marrakech to Paris.

The town later became a symbol of southern resistance, and remains the administrative capital of its province. But the atmosphere is that of a working country town — a place that lives from its market and its metal rather than from visitors.

One of the gates in Tiznit's 19th-century ramparts.

What to see

Tiznit's sights are modest in scale and close together. Half a day covers the essentials without hurrying; two days let you enjoy them twice, in different light.

The ramparts and their gates

The walls run for roughly five kilometres around the old town, studded with square bastions and pierced by several gates. You do not need to walk the full circuit — the stretches near the main gates are the handsomest, and they glow a deep apricot in the last hour of daylight. Some sections can be climbed for a view over the rooftops, but the steps are steep and unrailed, and the view from the ground is lovely enough.

The jewellers' souk

This is the reason to come. A covered warren of small shops and open workshops, the silver souk is one of the largest of its kind in Morocco. Look for Berber fibulae (the great pinned brooches that once fastened a woman's cloak), heavy necklaces strung with amber and coral, anklets, daggers and enamelled Tiznit crosses. Prices are usually calculated by weight, bargaining is expected and good-natured, and nobody will chase you down the alley.

Place du Méchouar

The old parade ground is now the town's living room: a wide rectangle of cafés, arcades and benches, at its best after five o'clock when families come out. Order a mint tea, take a seat facing the square, and you will have understood Tiznit in twenty minutes.

The Great Mosque and its minaret

Tiznit's Great Mosque has an unusual minaret bristling with wooden stakes, in the Saharan style seen as far south as Timbuktu. The beams were left in place by the builders as a permanent scaffold for re-plastering. The mosque is closed to non-Muslims, but the minaret is easily admired and photographed from the surrounding lanes.

The Blue Spring and Kasbah Aguenaj

Aïn Zerka, the Blue Spring, is the legendary source around which the town grew, tied to the story of a repentant woman named Lalla Zninia. Be warned: it is a small, plain water basin rather than a beauty spot — go for the story, not the scenery. Nearby, the restored Kasbah Aguenaj gives a sense of the old fortified heart of the medina.

The main square at the heart of Tiznit.

A day trip nearby

Aglou Plage

About 15–20 km northwest of town, reached by a good flat road in roughly 20–25 minutes, Aglou is Tiznit's beach: a long sweep of Atlantic sand, a small fishing village, and a line of cafés where grilled sardines arrive without ceremony. Even in summer the sea breeze keeps it several degrees cooler than the medina.

At the far end of the beach, fishermen's troglodyte dwellings are cut into the low cliff — a genuinely unusual sight, and a gentle walk along firm sand if the tide is out. The Atlantic here is cold and the currents can be strong, so treat it as a place to paddle and watch rather than to swim far out.

Farther down the coast, Mirleft lies around 40 km away and the old Spanish town of Sidi Ifni about 70–75 km, roughly 1 to 1.5 hours by road — both easy as a longer outing with a hired car and driver.

The Atlantic shore near Tiznit.

What to eat

This is Souss country, and the cooking is simpler and lighter than in the imperial cities.

• Fish tagine — sea bream or sole with tomato, peppers, preserved lemon, olives and chermoula. Order it in Aglou, where the fish came in that morning.
• Argan oil — pressed in the villages around Tiznit and quite different from the cosmetic kind: nutty, golden, poured over bread at breakfast.
• Amlou — the local treasure, a thick paste of toasted almonds, honey and argan oil. Sweet, soft on the teeth, and it travels home well in a jar.
• Berber tagine — vegetables with lamb or chicken, piled into a cone and simmered slowly. Gentle on sensitive stomachs and always available.
• Harira and msemmen — the soup and flaky griddle bread you will find at any small café, usually the cheapest and most comforting meal of the day.

Tiznit is a conservative country town: alcohol is not widely served, and restaurants are plain rather than smart. Eat where the dining room is busy, drink bottled water, and ask for salads to be made with peeled vegetables if your digestion is delicate.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The ground is kind here. The medina is flat, compact and largely free of the hills and long staircases that tire visitors in Fes or Chefchaouen. Most of what you want to see lies within a 10–15 minute walk of the main square.
• Stay inside or just outside the walls, near Place du Méchouar. It saves taxis and means you can go back to your room for a rest at midday rather than pushing on.
• Ask for a ground-floor or first-floor room. Small riads and guesthouses rarely have lifts, and their staircases are often steep and tiled.
• Watch the surfaces, not the traffic. Alleys are paved but uneven in places, with the occasional step or drain. Flat shoes with a firm sole are worth more here than any walking pole. Mopeds do slip through the souk — keep to one side.
• Plan around the heat. From June to September, do your walking before 11am and after 5pm; inland afternoons are hot and shade in the souk is patchy. Winter days are mild but evenings turn cool, so bring a fleece.
• Carry cash in small notes. There are banks and ATMs near the main square, but workshops and cafés often cannot take cards.
• Buying silver: prices go by weight, so ask to see the piece weighed, and ask whether it is solid silver or silver-plated. Bargaining is normal and friendly; walking away is perfectly polite.
• Medical care: the town has pharmacies and a provincial hospital, but for anything serious you would be transferred to Agadir, about 1.5–2 hours away. Travel insurance matters here more than in the big cities.
• Dress modestly — covered shoulders and knees. It costs nothing and is warmly appreciated in a town with few tourists.

A street in Tiznit's walled old town.

Getting there

The grand taxi station in Tiznit, November 2023.

Our verdict

Tiznit will not overwhelm you, and that is its gift. There is no grand monument, no queue, no crowd of guides at the gate. What there is instead is a walled town going about its business, a souk full of silver that has been made the same way for over a century, and a square where the whole town gathers at dusk.

For travelers over 60, it is one of the most comfortable stops in southern Morocco: flat, small, inexpensive, and only an hour or two from Agadir's airport. Come for two nights on the way south, add an afternoon at Aglou for the sea air, and you will leave with a piece of silver and the pleasant feeling of having found something the coaches missed.

The Great Mosque of Tiznit, with its distinctive minaret.

“Behind Tiznit's pink walls, nothing is hurried but the hammers.”

Photo credits

• Tiznit 85000, Morocco - panoramio: karel291, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Bab Aglou Tiznit: Abdeaitali, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Tiznit place: Theoliane, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Tiznit beach: Benailla19811, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Tiznit rue: Theoliane, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Tiznit Grand Taxi Station - November 2023: Anass Sedrati, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Big Mosque of Tiznit: Anass Sedrati, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons