69 Fun Facts About Morocco

What is the capital city of Morocco?

Rabat, on the Bou Regreg estuary, has been the seat of government since the French protectorate; Casablanca is far bigger and the main port but not the capital.

Which body of water separates Morocco from Spain?

The Strait of Gibraltar separates Morocco from Spain; at its narrowest it is about 13 km wide, and ferries cross from Tangier to Tarifa in under an hour.

Which country borders Morocco to the east?

Algeria shares Morocco's entire eastern frontier; the land border between the two has been closed since 1994, one of the longest-shut borders in the world.

What is the highest peak in Morocco and all of North Africa?

Toubkal, at 4,167 metres in the High Atlas, is the highest peak in North Africa; it is a popular two-day trek from Imlil with no technical climbing.

Which mountain range runs like a backbone through central Morocco from northeast to southwest?

The range is divided into the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Anti-Atlas, and most Moroccans live north of it.

Which two Spanish enclaves on Morocco's Mediterranean coast does Morocco claim as its own?

Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish cities on Morocco's Mediterranean coast; Melilla has been Spanish since 1497 and Ceuta since 1580, and Morocco has claimed both since independence.

What is Morocco's longest river?

The Draa, about 1,100 km long, rises in the High Atlas near Ouarzazate and mostly runs dry before reaching the Atlantic north of Tan-Tan.

Which Moroccan city is nicknamed the 'Blue Pearl' for its blue-washed houses?

Chefchaouen, founded in 1471 as a small kasbah by Ali ibn Rashid, a descendant of Idris I, sits in the Rif mountains; its blue-washed lanes earned the 'Blue Pearl' nickname.

Which Moroccan town, built by the French in 1929, is nicknamed 'Little Switzerland'?

It gets real snow in winter and hosts Al Akhawayn, the first English-language university in Northwest Africa.

Erg Chebbi, whose dunes rise up to 150 metres, lies on the edge of which desert?

The dune sea near Merzouga is about 28 km long and runs right along the Algerian border.

Roughly what was Morocco's population at the 2024 census?

The 2024 census counted about 36.8 million people, roughly 37 million, up from 11.6 million at the 1960 census held just after independence.

Morocco was the first nation to recognise the independence of which country, in 1777?

Sultan Mohammed III opened Moroccan ports to ships of the United States in December 1777; the 1786 Treaty of Friendship that followed became the United States' oldest unbroken treaty.

In which year did the Treaty of Fez make Morocco a French protectorate?

The Treaty of Fez was signed on 30 March 1912; France took the centre, Spain the north and far south, and Tangier later became an international zone.

In which year did Morocco regain independence from France?

France recognised Moroccan independence on 2 March 1956; Sultan Mohammed V, exiled by the French to Corsica and then Madagascar in 1953, returned to lead the new kingdom.

Which great-grandson of Hasan ibn Ali was proclaimed imam by the Awraba Berbers at Walila?

Idris I, a great-grandson of Hasan ibn Ali, fled the Abbasid massacre at Fakhkh near Mecca and was proclaimed imam by the Awraba Berbers at Walila, beside Volubilis, founding the Idrisid dynasty.

Which dynasty has ruled Morocco since the 17th century?

The Alaouites, who claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad, took power in the 1660s under Moulay Rashid; their dynastic red became the background of the national flag.

Morocco was the only North African nation never to fall under the rule of which power?

Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli all became provinces of the Ottomans, but the Saadi sultans, notably Ahmad al-Mansur after 1578, kept Morocco outside the Ottoman Empire.

Morocco's Saadi dynasty conquered which West African state in the late 16th century, seizing Timbuktu?

Ahmad al-Mansur's musket-armed army crossed the Sahara and crushed the Songhai Empire at Tondibi in 1591, seizing Timbuktu and Gao and their gold and salt trade.

Fes el Bali, the walled quarter holding the Chouara tannery, is a famous example of what kind of city core?

Fes el Bali is the classic medina, the old walled Islamic town; its car-free lanes make it one of the largest urban pedestrian zones in the world.

The 1578 Battle of the Three Kings in Morocco killed the young king of which European country?

Sebastian I disappeared on the field at Alcácer Quibir; without an heir, Portugal passed to Philip II of Spain for 60 years.

The 1975 'Green March' of about 350,000 Moroccans was aimed at taking over which territory from Spain?

Spain withdrew weeks later; the territory's status is still unresolved and patrolled by a UN mission.

Which two Allied leaders met at the January 1943 Casablanca Conference?

Roosevelt and Churchill met at the Anfa Hotel from 14 to 24 January 1943 and announced the demand for the Axis powers' 'unconditional surrender'; Stalin, invited, stayed away because of Stalingrad.

Which rebel leader established the short-lived Republic of the Rif in the 1920s?

Abd el-Krim proclaimed the Republic of the Rif in 1921 after routing Spain at Annual; Spain resorted to mustard-gas bombing before a Franco-Spanish force forced his surrender in May 1926.

Which king came to the Moroccan throne in July 1999?

Mohammed VI came to the throne on 23 July 1999 on the death of his father Hassan II, whose 38-year reign included the repressive 'years of lead'.

The Roman ruins of Volubilis, near Meknes, were the capital of which ancient kingdom?

Volubilis was a royal seat of the Berber kingdom of Mauretania before Rome annexed the kingdom in AD 40; the city grew rich on olive oil and kept superb mosaic floors.

The 14th-century traveller Ibn Battuta was born in which Moroccan city?

Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier in 1304 and set out from there on hajj in 1325; his Rihla covers some 117,000 km across Africa, Arabia, India and China.

Which two languages are official in Morocco?

The 2011 constitution made Berber (Amazigh) official alongside Arabic; French is widely used in business and government but has no official status.

What is the name of the Moroccan dialect of Arabic that serves as the everyday lingua franca?

Darija, Moroccan colloquial Arabic, is peppered with French, Spanish and Berber loanwords and is often hard for Arabic speakers from the Middle East to follow.

What is the currency of Morocco?

The Moroccan dirham replaced the franc in 1960 and is divided into 100 santimat, called centimes in French.

What symbol sits at the centre of Morocco's red flag?

The pentagram, said to stand for the five pillars of Islam, was added by Sultan Yusef in 1915.

Besides being head of state, the Moroccan king holds which religious title?

The king's title Commander of the Faithful, Amir al-Mu'minin, is written into the constitution and rests on the Alaouite dynasty's claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

The University of al-Qarawiyyin, cited as the world's oldest, was founded in which city?

Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez began as a mosque in 859 and grew into a centre of learning; UNESCO and Guinness cite it as the oldest continuously operating university.

Who founded al-Qarawiyyin as a mosque in the 9th century?

Fatima al-Fihri, daughter of a merchant from Kairouan in Tunisia, spent her inheritance founding the mosque in 859; her sister Mariam founded the nearby al-Andalus Mosque.

Before 1948, Morocco had the Muslim world's largest Jewish community, numbering about how many?

In 1948 Morocco's Jewish population was about 265,000; after waves of emigration to Israel and France only a few thousand remained by the 2020s.

The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, completed in 1993, is famous for its 210-metre what?

The minaret rises 210 metres, about 60 storeys, above a promontory on the Atlantic, and a laser on top points toward Mecca at night.

The Koutoubia tower in Marrakesh is thought to have inspired which famous tower in Seville?

The Giralda, finished in 1198 as the minaret of Seville's Almohad mosque, follows the Koutoubia's design; the unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat is the third sister.

Marrakesh's famous main square, home to snake charmers, storytellers and food stalls, is called what?

Jemaa el-Fnaa, which one reading translates as 'mosque of ruination' after a Saadian mosque begun on the site and never finished, was proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2001.

Which fashion designer bought and restored the Majorelle Garden in Marrakesh in 1980?

Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé bought the garden created by painter Jacques Majorelle in 1980; the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech opened next door in 2017.

Aït Benhaddou, the mud-brick village seen in Lawrence of Arabia and Game of Thrones, is what kind of settlement?

The clay ksar on the old caravan route to the Sahara has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

Atlas Studios, where Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven were shot, is just outside which Moroccan town?

Atlas Studios, opened in 1983 on the desert edge of Ouarzazate, leaves sets from Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven standing and opens them to guided tours.

The classic 1942 film Casablanca was shot almost entirely where?

It was filmed on a Burbank studio lot belonging to Warner Bros; only Major Strasser's arrival was shot on location, at Van Nuys Airport, and nobody involved went to Morocco.

'Marrakesh Express', a 1969 hit about a train ride in Morocco, was recorded by which trio?

Crosby, Stills & Nash released it on their 1969 debut album; Graham Nash wrote it after a 1966 train trip from Casablanca to Marrakesh, and it reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which American author of The Sheltering Sky settled in Morocco, drawing Tennessee Williams and Burroughs to visit?

Bowles lived in Tangier for over 50 years and set The Sheltering Sky in North Africa.

Which Orson Welles film won at Cannes in 1952 while entered under the Moroccan flag?

Othello, shot piecemeal between 1949 and 1951 with much of it in Essaouira (then Mogador), was entered as a Moroccan film and shared the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1952.

Which dish is described as Morocco's national delicacy?

Couscous, steamed several times over a stew in a two-tier pot called a couscoussier, is traditionally served on Fridays after midday prayers.

A tagine is both a Moroccan stew and the earthenware pot it cooks in, distinguished by what shape of lid?

The cone-shaped lid traps rising steam and drips it back onto the food, so the stew cooks slowly in its own juices with little added water.

Moroccan mint tea is made from spearmint, sugar and which kind of tea?

Chinese gunpowder green tea is the base; by tradition the head of the household pours it from a height to raise a foam and offers a guest three glasses.

Which animal famously climbs Morocco's argan trees to eat the fruit?

The tree grows almost nowhere else on earth, and photos of tree-climbing goats have become a Moroccan tourist staple.

Which sweet-savoury Moroccan pigeon or chicken pie is dusted with sugar and cinnamon?

Pastilla, also spelled bastilla or bsteeya, wraps pigeon or chicken, almonds and egg in paper-thin warqa pastry under a dusting of sugar and cinnamon; it is a wedding dish.

Which European territory has a famous introduced colony of Morocco's native macaque?

Barbary macaques, native to the Atlas and Rif, have an introduced colony of about 300 on the Rock of Gibraltar, the only wild monkeys in Europe.

The last wild specimen of which big cat, a Moroccan emblem, was shot in Morocco in 1922?

The Barbary lion, the heavy-maned lion of the Atlas, was shot out of the wild in 1922; descendants survive in zoos, including the Moroccan royal collection at Rabat.

What is the nickname of Morocco's national football team?

The Atlas Lions take their name from the Barbary lion of the Atlas Mountains; the national team first qualified for a World Cup in 1970 in Mexico.

At the 2022 World Cup, Morocco became the first African team to reach which stage?

Morocco beat Spain on penalties and Portugal 1-0 to reach the semi-finals, where France won 2-0; they then lost the third-place match to Croatia and finished fourth.

Morocco was chosen to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup with which two countries?

FIFA confirmed Morocco, Spain and Portugal as joint hosts in December 2024, Morocco's sixth bid after failures for 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2026; three opening games go to South America.

Nawal El Moutawakel, the first woman from an Arab country to win Olympic gold, won which event in 1984?

She won the inaugural women's 400 metres hurdles in Los Angeles in 54.61 seconds; Saïd Aouita took the 5,000 metres at the same Games, giving Morocco two track golds.

Which Moroccan won both the 1500 m and 5000 m at the 2004 Athens Olympics?

Hicham El Guerrouj completed the 1500 m and 5000 m double in Athens in 2004, a feat last achieved by Paavo Nurmi in 1924; his 1999 mile of 3:43.13 set the world record.

Al Boraq, opened in 2018 between Casablanca and the north coast, was the first what in Africa?

The high-speed rail line, built with French TGV technology, runs at 320 km/h on the Tangier–Kenitra stretch and cut the Tangier–Casablanca trip to about two hours.

Morocco's Noor complex, backed by the World Bank, is a giant plant generating which kind of energy?

Noor Ouarzazate is a solar complex of concentrated-solar and photovoltaic plants with about 580 MW of capacity; its first phase, Noor I, opened in 2016.

Morocco's cannabis-growing heartland around Ketama lies in which mountain region?

The Rif mountains around Ketama have grown cannabis for centuries and long supplied most of Europe's hashish; Morocco legalised cultivation for medical and industrial use in 2021.

The 2015 regionalisation reform divided Morocco into how many regions?

The 2015 reform cut the regions from 16 to 12, two of them covering Western Sahara; they are subdivided into 62 provinces and 13 prefectures.

Morocco was the first Arab and African country to reach the second round of a World Cup in which year?

At Mexico 1986 Morocco topped a group containing England, Poland and Portugal, the first African side to reach the second round, before losing 1-0 to West Germany in the round of 16.

Morocco set a tourism record in 2023 with roughly how many international arrivals?

Arrivals reached a record 14.5 million in 2023, up from 12.9 million in 2019, the previous best year; Marrakesh and Agadir are the two biggest destinations.

Marrakesh was founded around 1070 as the capital of which Berber dynasty?

Abu Bakr ibn Umar of the Almoravids founded Marrakesh around 1070 and Yusuf ibn Tashfin made it their capital; its red clay walls later gave it the nickname the Red City.

Roughly how far do the 12th-century ramparts of Marrakesh stretch around the medina?

The ramparts run about 19 km around the medina; built by the Almoravids from orange-red clay, they stand up to about 6 metres high and are pierced by some 20 gates.

Which city did Sultan Moulay Ismail make Morocco's capital in 1672?

Moulay Ismail moved the court to Meknes in 1672 and ringed it with vast walls, granaries and stables, earning it the nickname 'the Versailles of Morocco'; his mausoleum stands there.

Which Almohad ruler established the Menara Gardens of Marrakesh in 1157?

Abd al-Mu'min, the first Almohad caliph, laid out the Menara in 1157 around a large reservoir fed from the Atlas; the Agdal is the city's other great historic garden.

In which year was Fez first founded by Idris I on the bank of the Jawhar River?

Idris I founded Fez in 789 on the east bank of the river; his son Idris II added a second town across the water in 809, and the Almoravids merged the two around 1070.

Which Moroccan resort city was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake on 29 February 1960?

The 1960 earthquake destroyed most of Agadir and killed about 12,000 people; the city was rebuilt just to the south as a planned Atlantic beach resort.

Under which dynasty did Fez reach its golden age and regain its status as capital in 1250?

The Marinids took Fez in 1250 and made it their capital, founding the administrative city of Fes Jdid in 1276 and building madrasas such as Bou Inania and al-Attarine.