Guern ech Chems

The tribes of Ouled Mansour are the first inhabitants of Saïdia. The background of the tribe is Arabic in manners and language, its territory includes the hills of Guern ech Chems and the plain between these hills and the sea.

This tribe would have derived its name from the fraction of the Oulad Mansour of the Mazaz tribe north of Marnia in Algeria, a part of which, three or four centuries ago, settled on the lower Kiss. These families live in gourbis or in tents.

After Guern ech Chems, Saïdia bore the name: Adjroud until the end of the XIXth century when it changes its name to become Saïdia or the happy citadel. (Oued Kiss or Oued Adjroud at the time)

It was a ghost village completely deserted nine months of the year. The indigenous tribes of Triffa lived in the neighboring douars and frequented the village for administrative and judicial matters. The small Kasbah built in the 19th century, with its intact walls, was the only building until the 1930s.

For a long time it was only an enclosure. It was not until the spring of 1899 that the happy kasbah (Assaïdia) was completed by some constructions and a house of residence for the Caid. Saïdia served mainly as a place of disembarkation and transit of the garrisons of other casbahs, including that of Oujda.

source: http://encyclopedie-afn.org/Historique_Saïdia_-_Ville

Saidia known as the “blue pearl” is a resort located in Morocco’s Rif Mountains on the Mediterranean coast.
History of Saidia is relatively small compared to the rich and fabulous history of Morocco. The Arabs of the region founded the city to 1548 and established mosques. In 1881, Sultan Moulay Hassan 1st, seized Saidia, and built a citadel and two mosques.
In 1913 it was placed under French protectorate. The coastal town of Saidia owes its existence to its location marker on the Moroccan-Algerian border and its beautiful beach that stretches about six miles.