General Information:

Morocco's onetime monarch, King Hassan II, likens his country to a desert palm: "rooted in Africa, watered by Islam and rustled by the winds of Europe." A poetic description for a place which can appear mystical, magical and foreboding all at once.
Tangier, Casablanca, Marrakesh...just the names of these cities and towns should stir a hint of spice in the nostrils of even the most geographically challenged people. Fail to look beyond movie images of these names though and your sure to miss the traditional markets full of Gnaouan dancers, snake charmers, and actors on the most public of stages.

Check with those who've been to Morocco, and ask them what they thought of it. The chances are after hearing what they have to say, you'll want to catch the next plane into this mysterious land.

Geography:

Situated on the northwest coast of Africa, Morocco is one of three countries which make up the maghreb ("furthest west"), the other two being Algeria and Tunisia. The Atlantic Ocean is to the west, while the calm waters of the Mediterranean are due north and the harsher sands of the Sahara are to the south. Snaking through the center of the country are a series of mountain ranges, beginning with the Rif mountains in the north and continuing with the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Anti-Atlas ranges, which nearly split the country in half along a vertical axis. The territory of Morocco is approximately 710,850 square Kilometers. The Moroccan coast extends over 3,500 Km.

Political System:

The Kingdom of Morocco is an Islamic, Democratic and Social Constitutional Monarchy. It is an African country and belongs to the Maghreb region. Since the enthronement of King Hassan II in 1961, Morocco has played a dynamic role in major international and regional organizations (The United nations, the Arab Maghreb Union, The Arab League, the Al Qods committee etc.) The Constitution: the 1972 Moroccan Constitution, revised on September 4, 1992 guarantees: the freedom of movement, equal rights to education and to employment, multiple political parties, the right to strike and the respect of human rights as they are universally recognized.

People:

The Berber were the original people of Morocco and the majority of modern day Moroccans (about40%) are pure Berber with another 35% of Berber extraction.

Arabs, who trace their presence in Morocco to the Muslim conquests in the 7th century A.D., are the second largest grouping and coalesce in the country's urban areas. There is a small minority of black African descent and a European community, predominately French, of about 100,000.

Language:

Arabic is Morocco's official language, spoken by about threequarters of the population. French is also a common second language among the urban educated classes. Spanish is spoken as a second language by many residents in northern cities like Tangier, Tetuan and Larache. The Berbers are an indigenous northwest African nonArab tribal people who dominate large areas of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. They inhabited North Africa at least as early as 3000B.C. They speak their own distinct language in approximately 300 dialects relating to specific localities. Their Berber linguistic tradition is oral rather than literary and there is very little written Berber in existence.

Climate and Weather:

The coast is a warm, Mediterranean climate tempered on the eastern coast by southwest trade winds. Inland areas have a hotter, drier, continental climate. In the South of the country, the weather is very hot and dry throughout most of the year, with the nights coolest in the months of December and January. Rain falls from November to March in coastal areas and is mostly dry with high temperatures in summer. Cooler climate reside in the mountains. Marrakech and Agadir enjoy an average temperature of 21 C the winter.

Economy:

Morocco's economy has become more diversified under the 1983 structural adjustment program which reoriented the Moroccan economy toward the private sector and created a more favorable climate for foreign investment.

Industry, mining, tourism, and exporting may come as no surprise to many as to why the Moroccan economy is so sound. What may shock you is that Morocco also does quite well in agriculture. 80% of Morocco's arable land is dominated by the production of cereals (wheat) and vegetables. In fact, this country is the world's second largest exporter of citrus.

see Moroccoan Maps

Location:
Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria and Western Sahara

Geographic coordinates: 32 00 N, 5 00 W

Map references: Africa

Area:
total: 446,550 sq km
land: 446,300 sq km
water: 250 sq km 

Land boundaries:
total: 2,017.9 km
border countries: Algeria 1,559 km, Western Sahara 443 km, Spain (Ceuta) 6.3 km, Spain (Melilla) 9.6 km

Coastline: 1,835 km

Government type: Constitutional Monarchy

National capital: Rabat

Independence: 2 March 1956 (from France)

Flag description: red with a green pentacle (five-pointed, linear star) known as Solomon's seal in the center of the flag; green is the traditional color of Islam .. see Moroccan Flag History

Suffrage: 21 years of age; universal

Population: 29,114,497 (July 1998 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 36% (male 5,398,692; female 5,200,660)
15-64 years: 59% (male 8,525,344; female 8,682,277)
65 years and over: 5% (male 606,203; female 701,321) (July 1998 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Moroccan(s)
adjective: Moroccan

Ethnic groups: Arab-Berber 99.1%, other 0.7%, Jewish 0.2%

Religions: Muslim 98.7%, Christian 1.1%, Jewish 0.2%

Languages: Arabic (official), Berber dialects, French often the language of business, government, and diplomacy

Climate:
Mediterranean, becoming more extreme in the interior

Natural resources:
 phosphates, iron ore, manganese, lead, zinc, fish, salt

Land use:
arable land: 21%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 47%
forests and woodland: 20%
other: 11% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 12,580 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards:
northern mountains geologically unstable and subject to earthquakes; periodic droughts

Environment issues:
 land desertification (soil erosion resulting from farming of marginal areas, overgrazing, destruction of vegetation); water supplies contaminated by raw sewage; siltation of reservoirs; oil pollution of coastal waters