Casamar

In 1879, the British North West Africa Company occupied and took over Tarfaya as part of the Scramble for Africa, and turned it into an exchange center of trade in order to trade with Mohamed Bairouk and commercial caravans coming from Timbuktu and destined to Wadi Noun. In 1882, Mackenzie built a fortress under the name of "Port Victoria". On 26 March 1888, the local Saharan tribes attacked the fortress which resulted in killing and injuring workers. In 1895, after the Treaty of Cape Juby, the company abandoned its final fort and left it to the Sultan of Morocco Moulay Abd al-Aziz, who had just succeeded his father Hassan I, and the British government recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the lands from Draa River to Cape Bojador in Western Sahara. By the year 1916, the Spanish occupation came to the area, and the building would be known as "Casamar" (). In 2014, the Moroccan Ministry of Culture launched a five-year rehabilitation project, at a cost of 60 million dirhams. == References ==