Bab el-Mrissa (), also known as Bab al-Mellah (), is a gate in the city of

Salé Salé ( ar, سلا, salā, ; ber, ⵙⵍⴰ, sla) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town. Founded in about 1030 by the Banu Ifran ...

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 ...

. The gate was commissioned by the

Marinid The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) ar ...

sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd al-Haqq () (c. 1212 – 20 March 1286) was a Marinid ruler of Morocco. He was the fourth son of Marinid founder Abd al-Haqq, and succeeded his brother Abu Yahya in 1258. He died in 1286. He was the son of Abd al-Haqq ...

between 1270—1280. It is one of the largest as well as the oldest gates in Morocco, and the main landmarks of the city.يهم السلاويين.. هذه معالم مشروع تصميم المدينة الجديد
''Al Yaoum24''. Retrieved January 27, 2018.

Description

The gate was a construction after the Marinid dynasty had regained the control of the city of Salé from the

Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th cent ...

during the

Battle of Salé The Battle of Salé was a raid of the Moroccan city of Salé by King Alfonso X of Castile in 1260, when the city was governed by the Marinid dynasty. The city remained under Castilian occupation for two weeks, during which they captured 3,000 re ...

. In the process, they created a hole on the western city wall in order to allow access to the city square. Later, a shipyard was created to place the warships, and the entrance was established as Bab el-Mrissa. According to the account of Al-Nasiri, the gate existed on the protected harbor of the city, which was used by the Marinid as a shipyard. The harbor connects the city to

Bou Regreg The Bou Regreg ( ar, أبو رقراق) is a river located in western Morocco which discharges to the Atlantic Ocean between the cities of Rabat and Salé. The estuary of this river is termed Wadi Sala. The river is 240 kilometres long, with a t ...

via canal, and ships entered the harbor from the canal by passing through the arch of the gate. The gate is also known as a place where the sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub dispatched his naval fleet to attack the city of

Algeciras Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...

several times in 1285, in which joined by around 36 warships. The name "Mrissa" means muddiness, and this is because Bou Regreg and linked canal contained a lot of sands from the surrounding land, and the ships brought muddy water which disseminated in front of the gate when they were docking. Today, the scene is no longer observable due to the canal was depleted after the construction of roads connecting

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

and Salé, as a solution to mitigate the relatively long distance and inconvenience of the canal.أنا باب المريسة وهذه حكايتي
. ''El Mghriby''. Retrieved January 27, 2018. The designer of the gate is Muhammad bin Ali al-Ashbili, a well known

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

n architect. The arch takes a

horseshoe A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toen ...

shape, and the peak reaches 9.60 meters high and the width has 3.50 meters long. Inside of the gate has pathways for soldiers guarding the gate.

References

External Links

Images of Mrisa Gate
in Manar al-Athar digital image archive resource 13th-century establishments in Africa Gates in Morocco Marinid architecture {{Morocco-struct-stub Buildings and structures in Salé