Nador is a coastal city and provincial capital in the northeastern Rif region of Morocco with a population of about 178,540. Nador city is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by a salt lagoon named Rbḥar Ameẓẓyan in Berber and is 10 kilometres south of the Spanish city of Melilla. Nador was founded in the 19th century by local Berber tribes and was under Spanish occupation from 1912 until Morocco's independence in 1956.