LARACHE (EL a port in northern Morocco, on the Atlantic coast, in the Spanish zone, in Lat. 35° 13' N., in Long. 6° 9' W., 43 m. by sea S. by W. of Tangier, on the left bank of the estuary of the Lukkos. The old town, surrounded by ruins, rises in terraces up to forts which dominate it on the north and south. The Spanish quarter has grown both towards the port and on the coastal plateau to the south-west and on the north-west. Gardens and orchards stretch along above the left bank of the Lukkos, which describes wide meanders in its valley. The most interesting buildings are the ancient fortress of the Kibibat (the little domes) and the fort of La Cigogne (late 16th century) built by the Portuguese. The port has a jetty that prolongs the right bank of the river, quays with modern equipment and warehouses, and a lighthouse at the end of the jetty. The water at the entrance varies in depth at high water from '0 to about 20 ft., according to the magnitude of the tide. Cork, beans, bird-seed, wool, etc., are exported and
European goods imported.
The town is the centre of a Spanish circumscription; it has some 15,00o inhabitants, of whom 7,000 are Muslim, 3,00o are Jews, and 5,000 are Europeans, nearly all Spanish. A narrow gauge light railway connects the town with El Kasr (Kasr-el Kebir).
Larache corresponds to the ancient Lixus, of which the ruins are to be seen at Tchemmich, 3 km. above the port, on the right bank of the Lukkos. The ancients placed there the garden of the Hesperides, the golden apples of which may have been oranges. It was an important Phoenician settlement and, under the Romans, an imperial colony which reached its zenith in the days of Claudius. Larache belonged to Spain from 1610-89 and was later recon quered by Moulay-Ismail. It was bombarded by the French in 1765 and by the Spaniards in 1860. Spain regained possession of it in 1912.