Bab el-Mrissa

The gate was commissioned by the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq between 1270—1280.

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.

[1] The gate is also known as a place where the sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub dispatched his naval fleet to attack the city of Algeciras 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.

[1] The designer of the gate is Muhammad bin Ali al-Ashbili, a well known Andalusian architect.