Chichaoua

Chichaoua lies west of Marrakech, where streams descending from the High Atlas cross the Haouz country. Under the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, sugar works developed in the area alongside irrigated cane fields. Water channels powered the machinery that crushed and processed the crop. Moroccan sugar reached markets beyond the kingdom, but competition from Atlantic producers and political turmoil weakened the industry in the seventeenth century.