Casa Mar

Casa Mar, the “house in the sea”, is a stone trading post on a rocky islet just off the beach at Tarfaya. It is the town’s emblem, and one of the most striking historic buildings on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.

It was built in 1882 by Donald Mackenzie, a Scottish trader who founded the North West Africa Company. He hoped to draw the caravan trade coming out of the Moroccan Sahara to the coast. The post was also known as Port Victoria. It had two floors of storerooms, water cisterns and a landing for ships, with goods shipped to and from Britain. It suffered attacks and never prospered. In 1895 the company withdrew under an agreement with Sultan Abdelaziz and handed the building over.

Over a century of Atlantic storms has worn the walls, but the building still stands, and it is at its most dramatic at high tide when the sea surrounds it.

Visiting

Casa Mar is free to see from the beach at any time. At low tide you can walk across the rocks to the building, but check the tide times locally and come back well before the water rises. The interior is a ruin, so take care on the uneven floors.

Combine it with the Saint-Exupéry museum and the airmail monument in the town centre.