Top events in Morocco

June
07

The most prominent annual festival in Morocco, the Festival of World Sacred Music attracts visitors and performers from all over the world to...

June
11

This festival with sports, music and folklore events celebrates the cherry harvest, culminating in the coronation of the Cherry Queen, in the...

June
20

Free public concerts feature international acts and Morocco's best Gnaoua music, the funky, hypnotic tunes that celebrate freedom from slavery.

Travel Deals

Pin This

Ancient city of Ait Benhaddou, Morocco

© 123rf.com/Craig Jakich

Morocco Travel Guide

Key Facts

Geography

Area: 

710,850 sq km (274,461 sq miles).

Population: 

31.6 million (2009).

Population density: 

44 per sq km.

Capital: 

Rabat. Population: 1.6 million (2005).

Government: 

Constitutional monarchy since 1956, when Morocco gained independence from France.

Head of state: 

King Mohammed VI since 1999.

Head of government: 

Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi since 2007.

Electricity: 

110/220 volts AC, 50Hz, depending on age and location of building.

Morocco is a heady mix of languages, cultures, religions, ancient traditions and modern sensibilities.

See for yourself in Tangier, the elegantly faded port-town, which has become the playground of international thrill-seekers, aristocratic tax-exiles, authors and spies.

Further down the western coast there’s movie-famous Casablanca, then Essaouira with its stunning historic medina (fortified old town). Inland lies cosmopolitan Fez with its high-sided streets and a maze of stunning riads (traditional houses built around a central courtyard). Explore the grandiose sprawl of Marrakesh, a vibrant and chaotic imperial city with a magnetism that’s drawn visitors for centuries.

Yet Morocco has wilderness at its core, from the rugged peaks of the High Atlas Mountains, scattered with ancient Berber villages, to the terrifying, empty majesty of the Western Sahara Desert. Morocco is a country that can often feel like a whole new world waiting to be explored.