Islamic cities are walled

Essaouira (Atlantic Coast)

The traditional Islamic city is a product of preindustrial technologies. Preindustrial indicates the nature of both society and technology before the age of industrialization, that is, before the great changes that began with the Scientific Revolution in northern Europe in the 1600 and 1700s. Although Morocco lies adjacent to Europe, it was only in this century that the Industrial Revolution began to make an impact in Moroccan life.

Why did the Industrial Revolution take so long to reach Morocco?

The city of Essaouira is on the Atlantic coast and although it has a history dating back to at least the 7th century B.C., when Phoenecians settled here to extract purple dye from the shellfish along the coast. The present morphology of Essaaouira dates from the late 1700s when the Moroccan sultan (as the king was then called) decided to create a new port. The city that resulted is full of European renaissance touches, but has many of the main points of the traditional Islamic city--defensive location, walls and ramparts.

Why would a city have a wall against the ocean?