The Lonely Planet Guide to Morocco

Major Industries

Mining, leather goods, textiles, tourism

Trading Partners

EU, US, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil

Getting There and Away

With international airports at Casablanca, Tangier and Agadir, Morocco is well linked to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Taking your own vehicle to Morocco is straightforward. There's a variety of car ferries and jetfoils operating between Algericas in Spain and Morocco's Tangier and Ceuta. There are also ferry trips twice a week from Gibraltar to Tangier.

Getting Around

If time is your enemy and you've got a bit of cash to splash about, consider the occasional internal flight to make the most of this land. Morocco's Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF) operates one of the most modern rail and bus systems in Africa, linking most of the main centres. The trains are generally comfortable, fast and a better option than the buses - if only because sleeping cars are available for many overnight trips. Lines go as far south as Marrakesh. But if you miss the train, the buses are by no means a last-ditch option. The bus network is dense and efficient in most areas. Running alongside the bus services are shared taxis. These are the workhorses of the Moroccan road - normally elderly Mercedes vehicles which you'll see belting along the highways or gathered in great flocks near bus stations. Shared taxis are a big feature of Morocco's public transport system and link towns to their nearest neighbours in a kind of 'leapfrogging' system, going from one town to another, en route to a final destination. The fixed-rate fares are higher than bus fares. Renting a car isn't cheap in Morocco, but deals can be struck with the smaller agencies. Petrol (gas) is available pretty much everywhere. There are police checks on most main roads in Morocco but these rarely affect foreigners.

The bigger cities have public bus services. Petits taxis are a common sight in most cities and major towns. They're licensed to carry up to three passengers and can be a useful way to avoid heat exhaustion and/or hustlers.

Aït Benhaddou

Aït Benhaddou is one of the most exotic and best-preserved kasbahs in the entire Atlas region. This is hardly surprising, since it has had money poured into it as a result of being used for scenes in as many as 20 films. In recent years its population has dwindled, but it is under Unesco protection.

Hassan II Mosque

Designed by French architect Michel Pinseau, the mosque is topped by a soaring 210m (689ft)minaret, which shines a laser beam towards Mecca by night. In addition to this high-tech call to prayer, the mosque also has a centrally heated floor, electric doors, a retractable roof and a section of glass flooring allowing the faithful to see the Atlantic washing the rocks below.

Above all though, it is the vast size and elaborate decoration of the prayer hall that is most striking. Large enough to house Paris' Notre Dame or Rome's St Peter's, it is blanketed in astonishing woodcarving, zellij (tile work) and stucco moulding.

The project cost more than half a billion dollars and was paid for largely by public subscription. Although most Moroccans, particularly those from Casablanca, are very proud of their modern monument others believe this vast sum might have been better spent. In particular, resentment lingers among the slum dwellers who were evicted without compensation from the area around the mosque.

Fès el-Bali

Despite its designation as a World Heritage site, investment has been slow to follow. While the chic cafe-lined boulevards of the ville nouvelle provide a stark contrast, many young Fassis remain jobless, and the bright lights disguise the sad lot of the poorer people living on the periphery.

For the short-term visitor, Fès is terribly exotic and can be difficult to come to grips with. The medina can seem totally impenetrable. Though the amount of hassle is far less than it once was, the attention of unofficial guides, small boys, touts and shopkeepers can be intimidating for some. It is a veiled, self-contained city where life moves to centuries-old traditions - a city that doesn't easily bare its soul. With time, visitors begin to glimpse behind the anonymous walls and appreciate the rich culture and spirituality that is Fès.

Djemaa el-Fna

In between the groups of spectators, diners, shoppers and tourists weave the occasional hustler, pickpocket, knick-knack seller, hashish dealer and glue-sniffing kid. On the outer edges are the juice stalls with their kerosene lanterns ablaze. Beyond them, hunched on the ground with their eye-catching wares spread before them, herbalists sit poised to prescribe a potion for whatever ails you.

Later at night, with fewer visitors around, musicians from the Derkaoua and Gnawa spiritual brotherhoods start playing their strong hypnotic music on drums, flutes and ginbris (two- or three-string guitars).

Volubilis

Volubilis is the site of the largest and best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. Dating largely from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, excavations have revealed that the site was originally settled by Carthaginian traders even earlier. At its peak, it is estimated that the city housed up to 20,000 people. Take a guide, a hat and plenty of water. Magical at dusk.

Pre 20th Century History

Unlike other North African nations, Morocco has been largely occupied by one group of people for as long as recorded history can recall. The Berbers, or Imazighen (free men), settled in the area thousands of years ago and at one time controlled all of the land between Morocco and Egypt. Divided into clans and tribes, they have always jealously guarded their independence. It's this fierce spirit that has helped preserve one of Africa's most fascinating cultures.

The early Berbers were unmoved by the colonising Phoenicians, and even the Romans did little to upset the Berber way of life after the sack of Carthage in 146 BC. All the same, the Romans ushered in a long period of peace during which many cities were founded, and the Berbers of the coastal plains became city dwellers. Christianity turned up in the 3rd century AD, and again the Berbers asserted their traditional dislike of centralised authority by following Donatus (a Christian sect leader who claimed that the Donatists alone constituted the true church).

Islam burst onto the world stage in the 7th century when armies swept out of Arabia. Quickly conquering Egypt, the Arabs controlled all of North Africa by the start of the 8th century. By the next century much of North Africa had fragmented, with the move towards a united Morocco steadily growing. A fundamentalist Berber movement emerged from the chaos caused by the Arab invasion, overrunning Morocco and Muslim Andalucia. The Almoravids founded Marrakesh as their capital, but they were soon replaced by the Almohads.

Under these new rulers, a professional civil service was set up and the cities of Fès, Marrakesh, Tlemcen and Rabat reached the peak of their cultural development. But eventually weakened by Christian defeats in Spain, and paying the price for heavily taxing tribes, the Almohad power began to wane. In their place came the Merenids, from the Moroccan hinterland, and the area again blossomed - until the fall of Spain to the Christians, in 1492, unleashed a revolt that dissolved the new dynasty within 100 years.

After a number of short-lived dynasties rose and fell, the Alawite family secured a stranglehold in the 1630s that remains firm to this day. Although it was rarely a smooth ride, this pragmatic dynasty managed to keep Morocco independent for more than three centuries.

Modern History

Enter the European traders in the late 19th century, and a long era of colonial renovations. Suddenly France, Spain and Germany were all keen on hijacking the country for its strategic position and rich trade resources. France won out and occupied virtually the entire country by 1912. Spain clung to a small coastal protectorate and Tangier was declared an international zone.

The first French resident-general, Marshal Lyautey, resisted the urge to destroy the existing Moroccan towns and instead built French villes nouvelles (new towns) alongside them. Whether this was out of respect for the Arab culture or because the French had no desire to live in rundown medinas with no modern services is a topic up for debate. Whatever his reasons, Lyautey made Rabat on the Atlantic coast the new capital and developed the port of Casablanca. The sultan remained, but as little more than a figurehead. Lyautey's successors were not so sensitive. Their efforts to speed French settlement prompted the people of the Rif Mountains, led by the Berber scholar Abd el-Krim, to rise up against both colonial forces. It was only through the combined efforts of 25,000 Spanish-French troops that Abd el-Krim was eventually forced to surrender in 1926. By the 1930s, more than 200,000 French had made Morocco home. WWII saw Allied forces use Morocco as a base from which to drive the Germans out of North Africa.

With the war over, Sultan Mohammed V inspired an independence party that finally secured Moroccan freedom in 1956. Tangier was reclaimed in the process, but Spain refused to hand over the northern settlements of Ceuta and Melilla (to this day they remain Spain's last tenuous claim on Africa).

Mohammed V promoted himself to king in 1957 and was succeeded four years later by his son, Hassan II. This popular leader cemented his place in Moroccan hearts and minds by staging the Green March into the Western Sahara, an area formerly held by Spain. With a force of 350,000 volunteers, Hassan's followers overcame the indigenous Sahrawis to claim the mineral-rich region as their own.

By the 1960s it had become clear that the 100,000 or so inhabitants of the 'territory' wanted independence. Western Sahara's Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia al-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario) didn't take kindly to the invasion and embarked on a protracted war of independence against Morocco. Despite attempts at international mediation the issue remains unresolved. While the Moroccan masses applauded the southern invasion, it left nearby Algeria about as happy as the Western Saharans themselves. Morocco's relations with this particular war-torn neighbour have been poor ever since.

Recent History

In 1999, Mohammed VI ascended to the Moroccan throne just prior to his 35th birthday. The young king accelerated the more liberal trends that began late in his father's rule. In his first speech as king, he promised the amnesty of nearly 50,000 prisoners and apologised for past political repressions. More significantly, he sacked the powerful and much feared long-time head of the security forces, the infamous 'Butcher Basri'. Still, Morocco remains a monarchy in which the limits of political tolerance reflect the king's personal views.

Mohammed VI has shown himself to be most innovative in the field of social policy, and more specifically, in women's rights. In 2002, the king married Salma Bennani, a computer engineer - an event that appeared to symbolise acceptance of an increasingly modern role for women. In 2004, the government adopted landmark changes to the Moudawana, or Family Law, aimed at 'lifting the inequity imposed on women, protecting children's rights, and safeguarding men's dignity'. The new legislation grants unprecedented rights and protections for women concerning marriage, divorce and custody of children.

At a different level, investment in new roads, the widespread introduction of electricity, the provision of better sanitation and a huge number of social housing developments are all improving the daily lives of average Moroccans.

For all these signs of progress, however, the Moroccan leadership's unstinting support for the US-led war on terror has alienated many, pushing some Moroccans into the arms of the extremists who carried out the 2003 Casablanca and 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings. The government has responded in kind, shelving human rights protections and thereby drawing the battle-lines for a potential future conflict for the soul of Morocco. At the same time, Morocco continues to risk alienating international opinion by refusing to yield on the stalemate that is the Western Sahara.

Examines the takeover of Morocco by Paris, leading to the establishment of the protectorate.

Highly readable account of Mayne's time spent living among the people of Marrakesh.

An intriguing collection of short stories about North Africa by the famous author and one-time Tangier resident.

Travels through Morocco's social and geographical contrasts with interesting and unusual characters along the way.

A critique of contemporary Islamic society in North Africa, particularly the treatment of women.

An intriguing look at some of the Western literati who found a new home in Morocco at one time or another.