Morocco - Cats life in Chefchaouen

Cats life in Chefchaouen

In the heart of the Moroccan Rif, the blue city of Chefchaouen is a real sanctuary for cats. They have always been appreciated in the Muslim world, the Prophet Muhammad, very attached to her cat Muezza, largely influenced the followers of Allah to respect these felines. Today, the people of Chefchaouen still perpetuate this attachment.

Chefchaouen is one of the most beautiful medinas in northern Morocco and nestles like a cluster in the hollow of the horn-shaped mountains of Tissouka and Meggou, at an altitude of 600 meters. The crenellated ramparts that stand around the Kasbah remind us that the old city built in 1471 resisted the Portuguese. It then welcomed the Muslims expelled from Spain who would build, on the mountainside, a town inspired by the Andalusian model, with whitewashed houses and windows enhanced with blue, before being finally incorporated in 1920 into the Spanish protectorate of the Morocco.

With its labyrinth of steep alleys, plunging stairs, low walls to climb and the absence of any motorized device, the blue pearl of the Rif lends itself perfectly to the life of small felines who can delimit their territory in a certain tranquility. . Thin and slender, red, white, black or gray, skillful, wild or cuddly, the four-legged inhabitants have literally colonized the heart of the Medina, rubbing shoulders with women, men and children until they blend into the daily life of the city.