In for the Night

Essaouira, Morocco

This boat resting peacefully in the harbor allows one to reflect on all the history in this port dating back for centuries. Around the end of the 1st century BC, the Berber king Juba II established a Tyrian purple factory, which processed the murex and purpura shells found in the intertidal rocks at Essaouira and the Iles Pururaires (Purple Islands). The pigment from these shells was known throughout the ancient world and sought after by the great rulers of the Old World. This dye colored the purple strip in the togas worn by Senators of Imperial Rome.

Morocco