About Safi: Overview & What to Expect
Safi is an Atlantic port city with a long history of fishing, pottery and Portuguese influence. Visitors can explore its historic sites, pottery workshops, seafood and rugged coastal scenery.
The city has been a center of ceramics production for centuries, and the hillside potters' quarter, Colline des Potiers, remains active today, with workshops using techniques passed down through generations to produce the glazed, colorfully painted pottery Safi is known for across Morocco. Its natural deep-water harbor made it an important trading post as far back as the 16th century, when Portuguese forces controlled the city for several decades, leaving behind the fortified Kechla and other defensive structures overlooking the port. Safi later grew into one of the world's largest sardine fishing ports, and the fishing fleet remains a major part of the local economy alongside the phosphate industry nearby. Cliffs and rocky viewpoints along the coast offer views over the harbor and Atlantic, giving the city a working, industrial character quite different from Morocco's more polished coastal resorts.
