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In Antiquity, the city of Agadir was a Phoenician port, the last link of a chain of trade counters along the Atlantic coast; but the city’s name was originally Amazigh, which shows that the indigenous population of the region knew this site long before the first Phoenician ships came. This name was actually borrowed by the Phoenicians, who named several other cities they founded after it.
After the founding of Carthage, Phoenician merchants founded a chain of trade counters beyond the Columns of Hercules, on the Atlantic coast of modern-day Morocco. From those counters, the Phoenicians developed relations with the indigenous populations and traded with them. The last of those counters was probably located on Cape Ghir. Nothing else is known of this counter, which never became very important (unlike the one on the Iles Purpuraires, on the coast of Essaouira, where the Phoenicians developed a purple fabric). Phoenician remains, mostly potteries, have been found in the region.
The name “Agadir” is of Amazigh origin: an “agadir” (in Tifinagh: ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔ) is a fortified granary, used by the Amazigh mountain tribes to store their harvest and other possessions. Several such agadirs can still be found in Morocco, throughout the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas and the Draa valley. When the Phoenicians arrived in the region, they borrowed this word from the Amazigh: in Punic language, a “gadir” (𐤀𐤂𐤃𐤓) is a wall or a fortified compound. The Phoenicians gave this name to several other cities they founded, the main one being Gadir (Cadiz), in Southern Spain.
In the 5th Century BCE, the Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator led an expedition to explore the West African coast, founding colonies on the way (or, more likely, reestablishing abandoned Phoenician colonies). His travel narrative mentions five cities he founded: Karikon-Teichos (castle of the sun), Gytte (potentially derived from geth, “cattle”, or gt, “press”), Akra (promontory), Melitta (honeybee) and Arambys (mountain of grapes). Those cities are difficult to identify with certainty. Some believe that Akra was Agadir, but most specialists rather locate them further North, between El-Jadida and Essaouira. The most common identification of the five cities, according to the etymology of their name, is Azemmour, El-Jadida, Oualidia, Cape Beddouza and the Island Mogador, next to Essaouira. The river Lixus, also mentioned in the travel itinerary, is probably the Oued Draa.
Among the products that the local population sold to the Phoenicians was argan oil, produced by the Amazigh from the fruit of the argan tree, which grows only in this region of the world. Over 3.000 years ago, the Phoenicians were already exporting argan oil through the whole Mediterranean basin, and using it as food complement and cosmetic.
In the Roman era, Cape Ghir was known as “Cape Rhysaddir”. This name, mentioned by the Roman historian Polybius, comes from the Phoenician Rs ‘dr, “Cape of the Powerful”, probably a reference to the Punic goddess Tanit. There was apparently no city at that time. The modern-day name of Cape Ghir comes from the Tamazight ighir (ⵉⵖⵉⵔ), meaning “[mountain] shoulder”.
The modern-day city of Agadir was founded by the Portuguese in 1505, under the name Santa Cruz do Cabo de Aguer (Holy Cross of Cape Ghir). The Portuguese built the Casbah of Agadir Oufella. The city became Moroccan in 1541, after it was conquered by the Saadian dynasty.
