Travel Guide Salé

Salé is a lively suburb of Rabat that is easily reached on foot, by boat or by tram. Following an attack by the Spaniards, a Merinid sultan decided to fortify the city by surrounding it with ramparts, installing an arsenal and digging a basin connected to the Bouregreg wadi. The passage of ships was controlled by defensive gates. Thus protected, Salé was a very prosperous city until the 16th century. Then Rabat became more and more important... until it was totally eclipsed. More traditional than its big sister, its medina on the other side of the estuary of the Oued Bouregreg has kept a strong picturesque character. You will enjoy getting lost in its narrow streets enclosed in the Merinid stone ramparts. On arriving from Rabat, you will come across the Bab M'Risa gate: it dates from the end of the 13th century and allowed the canal to pass through, which linked the town centre to the wadi. In its heyday, horses were left on the other side of the wadi to come to Salé. You should spend at least half a day there, not forgetting to enjoy the view of the beaches of the estuary from the ramparts. When you decide to spend a few days in Salé, you are about to experience the authentic Morocco. Here, life does not revolve around tourism, the merchants haggle with the inhabitants. The city is a dormitory town where many of the inhabitants work in Rabat. For a long time it was not advisable to walk around after dark in Salé. Today, this seems to be fading.