Ouezzane is located on the northern slope of Mount Bouhelal at the southwestern edge of the Rif mountains, at an elevation of 325 meters. Founded in 1727 by the Sharif Mawlāy ʿAbd Allāh, a descendant of Idrīs I as a religious community on the site of a village named Dechra Jabal al-Rīḥān (“Village of the Mount of Myrtles”) by the Sharif Mawlāy ʿAbd Allāh, a descendant of Idrīs I. After his death he was buried in the city, and the site became a place of pilgrimage. It is also a pilgrimage site for Moroccan Jews because of the Mausoleum of Rabbi Amran Ben Diwan who died in Ouezzane in 1782.