Morocco: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Morocco known for?

Morocco is known as a kingdom of North Africa, spread between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sahara. Its cities draw the eye. The old medinas, souqs, and spice markets fill its cities, from the capital at Rabat to Casablanca on the coast, while the High Atlas rises inland toward snow-covered peaks above the dunes of the Sahara.

Where is Morocco?

Morocco lies in the Maghreb of North Africa, with coastlines on two sides. Water frames the north and west. The Mediterranean Sea runs along the north and the Atlantic Ocean along the west, while Algeria lies to the east and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the south.

The land climbs inland. From the coast the ground rises into the High Atlas, whose snow-covered peaks stand over the interior before the land falls away to the dunes of the Sahara. Two great landscapes define it.

The High Atlas divides the fertile coast from the Sahara, its ridges holding snow through the year while the desert runs south and east toward Algeria in a sea of sand. The northern shore holds enclaves. Along the Mediterranean coast sit the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, small footholds on the northern edge of Morocco between the sea and the Maghreb interior.

Water and desert mark its bounds. Between the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the High Atlas, and the Sahara, Morocco holds more kinds of country than most of the whole of North Africa.

What is the history of Morocco?

Morocco carries a long history as a kingdom of the Maghreb, shaped by the peoples who have crossed North Africa. Two peoples shaped it most. Berber and Arab heritage run through the country, and Islam took hold as the faith of nearly all its people, giving Morocco the enduring mix of Arab, Berber, European, and African cultures.

Europe pressed in later. European powers came to the coast in the modern era, and the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla still stand on the northern shore as marks of that time. Independence came in 1956.

The Kingdom of Morocco took its modern form when the country gained independence in 1956, with Rabat as its capital and Casablanca growing into its largest city on the Atlantic Ocean. The monarchy has held since. Since 1956 Morocco has stood as a kingdom of North Africa, its cities keeping the medinas and mosques of the older centuries while Rabat governs the country from the Atlantic coast.

Its roots reach far back. Long before independence, the Berber and Arab peoples built the towns and mosques of the Maghreb, and that inheritance still shapes Morocco from Casablanca to the edge of the Sahara.

What is Morocco like?

Morocco is a country of two tongues and one faith, layered over centuries of exchange across the Maghreb. Arabic and Berber share it. Arabic and Berber are the official languages, and the Moroccan dialect of Arabic serves as the common speech, while Islam is the faith of nearly the whole country from the coast to the Sahara.

Many streams feed the culture. The culture of Morocco draws on Arab, Berber, European, and African roots at once, a blend seen in the souqs, spice markets, and mosques of its old medinas. The medina is the heart of it.

In the old cities of Morocco, souqs and spice markets wind through the medinas, and the call from the mosques marks the day across the Maghreb from Casablanca to the towns of the interior. Land shapes the table too. The coast, the High Atlas, and the Sahara each mark the life of Morocco, from the white-washed seaside towns of the Atlantic Ocean to the desert edges where Berber traditions run oldest.

Berber roots hold in the hills. In the High Atlas and along the Sahara, Berber language and custom run deep, while Arabic and Islam bind the whole of Morocco from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

What is the climate of Morocco?

Morocco holds more than one climate, split between the coast, the mountains, and the desert. The shore stays mild. Warm dry summers and mild wet winters run along the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, while the High Atlas holds snow on its peaks and the Sahara bakes hot and dry through much of the year.

How do you get to Morocco?

Morocco is reached easily from Europe, a short way across the water from the main European cities. Two coasts open the country. Most travellers arrive by air into Casablanca or the capital at Rabat, or by sea across the Mediterranean, with the Atlantic Ocean and the roads of the Maghreb carrying them on into Morocco.