About Agadir
Agadir (a word meaning "fortified collective granary" in Tachelhit, in Arabic Ø£Úادير) is a city in southwestern Morocco, located on the Atlantic coast, in the Souss region, 508 km south of Casablanca, 173 km from Essaouira, and 235 km west of Marrakech. It is the chief town of the Souss-Massa-Drâa administrative region and the Agadir Ida-Outanane prefecture.
The city has approximately 570,000 inhabitants (Gadiris in French, Gougadir/Oultougadir in Tachelhit, Gadiri/Gadiria in Arabic), and the metropolitan area, including the neighbouring towns of Inezgane and Aït Melloul, has 600,000 inhabitants. According to the 2004 census, Agadir had 346,106 inhabitants that year, and the population of the Agadir Ida-Outanane Prefecture was 487,954. It is one of the main urban centres of Morocco, the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the country after Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakech, Meknes, and Tangier. The population density is quite high. Three languages are spoken in the city: Arabic (essentially Darija, the Moroccan dialectal Arabic); Tachelhit (or Berber) by the Imazighen (Chleuh Berbers or Icelḥiyen); and French.
Devastated by an earthquake in 1960, the city was entirely rebuilt with mandatory seismic standards. It is now the largest seaside resort in Morocco, where tourists and foreign residents flock, attracted by an exceptionally mild climate all year round.
