Port Victoria (also known as Casamar, and Mackenzie's factory) was a historical

coastal fort 300px, Castillo San Felipe de Barajas in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, an example of an Early Modern coastal defense Coastal defence (or defense) and coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against military attack at or ...

, built in 1882 in

Cape Juby Cape Juby (, trans. ''Raʾs Juby'', es, link=no, Cabo Juby) is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands. Its surrounding area, including the cities of Tarfaya and Tan-T ...

near the city of

Tarfaya Tarfaya ( ar, طرفاية - ''Ṭarfāya''; ber, ⵟⵔⴼⴰⵢⴰ) is a coastal Moroccan town, located at the level of Cape Juby, in western Morocco, on the Atlantic coast. It is located about 890 km southwest of the capital Rabat, and ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, under the name of "Port Victoria" and by the

British North West Africa Company British North West Africa Company was an international trading company, founded by Donald McKenzie (explorer), Donald McKenzie in 1874 after securing bank financing with the guarantee of businessmen from Manchester. Since 1882 It was taken from Cas ...

, who positioned there early in 1879 in the goal of trading with commercial caravans coming from

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

and heading to Wadi Noun. Following an attack on the fortress in 1888, the company gave up the building in 1895 to the sultan of Morocco, Abd al-Aziz, and withdrew from it after the Treaty of Cape Juby. It was built on a sandy island and consisted of a ground floor comprising 8 rooms and an upper floor that also contains 8 rooms to store consumables imported and exported from the area towards the English city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, in addition to six ground tanks for potable water, and a shipping port for docking ships and commercial boats. Fortified it with war cannons to avoid any possible attack by the local Saharan tribes in

until the full completion of the project in 1882.

History

In 1879, the

occupied and took over

as part of the

Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...

, and turned it into an exchange center of trade in order to trade with Mohamed Bairouk and commercial caravans coming from

and destined to Wadi Noun. In 1882,

Mackenzie Mackenzie, Mckenzie, MacKenzie, or McKenzie may refer to: People * Mackenzie (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Mackenzie (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Clan Mackenzie, a S ...

built a fortress under the name of "Port Victoria". On 26 March 1888, the local Saharan tribes attacked the fortress which resulted in killing and injuring workers. In 1895, after the Treaty of Cape Juby, the company abandoned its final fort and left it to the sultan of Morocco, Abd al-Aziz, who had just succeeded his father

Hassan I ''Mawlay'' Hassan bin Mohammed ( ar, الحسن بن محمد, translit=al-Ḥassan bin Muḥammad), known as Hassan I ( ar, الحسن الأول, translit=al-Ḥassan al-Awwal), born in 1836 in Fes and died on 9 June 1894 in Tadla, was a sulta ...

. By the year 1916, the Spanish occupation came to the area, and the building would be known as casamar (). In 2014, the Moroccan Ministry of Culture launched a five-year rehabilitation project, at a cost of 60 million dirhams.

References

{{reflist 1882 establishments in the British Empire 1895 disestablishments in the British Empire 1890s in Morocco Buildings and structures completed in 1882 Tarfaya British forts