Deserted Tales: Mazagan

A complete walk-through recording of the Fortress of Mazagan (El Jadida, Morocco) — documenting every wall, bastion, rampart, and structure for 3D reconstruction reference.

This footage is part of the research phase of Deserted Tales, a game where the fortress serves as a main point of interest and the setting for the opening scenes. The goal: capture enough real-world detail — wall dimensions, textures, spatial relationships, architectural measurements — so the fortress can be recreated in 3D as close to life as possible, even for someone who has never been there.

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About the Fortress of Mazagan

Built by the Portuguese beginning in 1514 on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, Mazagan was one of the first fortified settlements on the route to India. The original citadel was designed by brothers Francisco and Diogo de Arruda. In 1541, after the fall of Agadir, it was expanded into a star-shaped fortress following plans by Italian architect Benedetto da Ravenna, along with Portuguese engineer João Ribeiro and Spaniard Juan Castillo.

The fortress pioneered Renaissance military design — its bastioned ramparts and inclined walls were among the earliest implementations of fortification architecture adapted to firearms. For over 250 years, it stood as the last Portuguese occupied stronghold in Morocco.

In 1769, Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah reclaimed the city. The Portuguese were forced to leave under a peace treaty, reportedly mining the main entrance which exploded when Moroccan forces entered, destroying the Governor’s Bastion and part of the main rampart. The city was then called al-Mahdouma — “the ruined” — before being refounded under the name El Jadida, “the new”.

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What the Film Covers

The camera walks the entire circuit of the ramparts without commentary, at a deliberate pace, so that every surface is recorded:

• The Portuguese Cistern — the Manueline masterpiece with its inverted cupola, whose five-metre pool doubles as a mirror for the vault above
• The Governor’s Bastion — the largest bastion of the enceinte, whose upper tier was destroyed in the 1769 explosion and never rebuilt
• The rampart walk — the full circuit of the walls, with the seaward face, the landward face, and the joints between the 1514 citadel and the 1541 star fortress
• The Church / Mosque — the structure that was a church under the Portuguese and a mosque after 1769
• The sea gate and the land gate — the two points of entry, and the trace of the mined passage
• The bastioned enceinte as a whole — the star plan, seen from the ground and from above where the terrain allows

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Why It Matters for Deserted Tales

The game opens in occupied Mazagan. Before a single stone can be modelled, the fortress had to be understood as a space — not as a photograph, but as a set of relationships: how a bastion meets a curtain wall, how the rampart turns, where light falls at the hours the player will move through, how the sea sounds from the seaward parapet.

The full article on the fortress, with its architectural detail, is here: [[Wiki/Locations/Mazagan_Fortress]].

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Watch

Watch on YouTube — the full 65-minute walk-through is embedded at the top of this page.

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Related

Games

• Deserted Tales — the stealth-action RPG that begins at Mazagan

Wiki

• Mazagan Fortress — the fortress, in full architectural detail
• Siege of Mazagan 1562 — the 1559–1562 siege, 2,800 Portuguese against the Saadians
• Siege of Mazagan 1769 — the final siege and evacuation

Concepts

• trace italienne / star fort — the Renaissance bastioned fortification system the fortress pioneered
• Manueline — the late-Gothic Portuguese style of the cistern
• al-Mahdouma — the “ruined” name of the abandoned citadel