The Souk Djmaa — sometimes anglicised as the chicken market — is the largest traditional market in Laayoune and the most "Sahrawi" corner of the city. It sits in the southern, Spanish-built lower town: a maze of small shops, food stalls, and open-air vendors selling everything from saffron and dates to plastic buckets and bolts of fabric for the colourful melhfa robes Sahrawi women wear.
The surrounding streets show the distinctive Spanish-era domestic architecture: rows of low whitewashed houses with thick walls and shallow eggshell-domed roofs, designed to stay cool in the heat. Visit in the morning when stalls are at their fullest; bargain politely.