Tétouan, is a city located in northern Morocco. It lies along the Martil Valley and is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 60 kilometres E.S.E. of Tangier. In the 2014 Moroccan census, the city recorded a population of 380,787 inhabitants. It is part of the administrative division Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima.
The city has witnessed many development cycles spanning over more than 2,000 years. The first settlements, discovered a few miles outside of the modern city limits, belonged to Mauretanian Berbers and date back to the 3rd century BC. A century later, Phoenicians traded there and after them the site—known now as the ancient town of Tamuda—became a Roman colony under Emperor Augustus.
In the late 13th century, the Berber Marinids started by building a casbah and mosque in what is now the old city. Soon after in 1305, the scale of the settlement was expanded by sultan Abu Thabit Amir, who fortified the place. Around the early 15th century, the Castilians destroyed the settlement in retaliation for piracy.
The modern history of the city starts around the late 15th century.