Island of Mogador
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Île de Mogador جزيرة موغادور |
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Mogador island from Essaouira harbour
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 Île de Mogador
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| Coordinates: 31°29′44.0″N 9°47′11.0″W / 31.495556°N 9.786389°W | |
| Country |
 Morocco
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| Region | Marrakesh-Safi |
| Province | Essaouira Province |
Mogador island (French: Île de Mogador) is the main island of the Iles Purpuraires near Essaouira in Morocco. It is about 3 kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers wide, and lies about 1.5 kilometers from Essaouira.
The Carthaginian navigator Hanno visited and established a trading post in the area in the 5th century BC, and Phoenician artifacts have been found on the island.
Around the end of the 1st century BC or early 1st century AD, Juba II established a Tyrian purple factory, processing the murex and purpura shells found in the intertidal rocks at Essaouira and the Iles Purpuraires. This dye colored the purple stripe in Imperial Roman Senatorial togas.
Roman merchants settled in the island under Augustus creating a small village: a Roman house with foundations, and also artifacts and coins, were also found on the island. Mogador and the nearby Iles Purpuraires were tied to Mauretania Tingitana by merchant ships in the first and second centuries of the Roman Empire.
From the first to the fourth century the island was connected to Mauretania Tingitana with roman ships that regularly went to the Roman Sala Colonia: this port of Sala (now disappeared) was connected with commercial roman ships with Anfa and this island on the coast of actual southern Morocco.
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Wikipedia