Morocco

Berber (Amazigh) kingdoms and Roman towns such as Volubilis gave way, after the Arab conquest of the late seventh century, to a Muslim Morocco whose first dynasty, the Idrisids, founded Fez. From here came a run of powerful Berber empires: the Almoravids, who built Marrakesh and ruled as far as Spain and the Sahel; the Almohads, who raised the Koutoubia and the tower that became Seville's Giralda; and the Marinids, who covered Fez in carved medersas. Uniquely in the region, Morocco was never absorbed by the Ottomans.

European pressure ended Moroccan independence in 1912, when the Treaty of Fez made most of the country a French protectorate, with Spanish zones in the north and south and an international regime in Tangier. A nationalist movement formed around Sultan Mohammed V, who was briefly exiled, and full independence came in 1956.

His grandson Hassan II ruled from 1961 to 1999 through a repressive period known as the "Years of Lead", survived two coup attempts, and in 1975 sent the "Green March" of civilians into the former Spanish Sahara. That territory, Western Sahara, remains disputed between Morocco, which controls most of it, and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front. King Mohammed VI, on the throne since 1999, has overseen family-law reform and a 2011 constitution adopted after Arab Spring protests, while keeping the monarchy firmly at the centre of power.

Islam — Sunni, of the Maliki school, with strong Sufi brotherhoods and their moussem festivals — is woven through daily life, and it coexists with an Amazigh identity that has grown more assertive, now visible in the Tifinagh script on official signs. The rituals of hospitality are constant: sweet mint tea poured from height, the neighbourhood hammam, and the bargaining theatre of the souk.

Craft is a living tradition — zellige tile mosaics, the leather tanneries of Fez, knotted carpets, brass and cedar work, and argan oil pressed by women's cooperatives in the southwest. Music runs from Andalusian classical orchestras to the Afro-Islamic trance of Gnawa, celebrated each June at Essaouira, to a large modern rap and fusion scene.

Morocco is moderate by regional standards but conservative in the countryside. Alcohol is sold discreetly, Ramadan reshapes the rhythm of the day, and football is a national passion — never more so than after the team reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2022.

Morocco is urbanising fast along the Casablanca–Rabat–Kénitra corridor, its economic spine, served by Africa's first high-speed train. That connected, modernising urban middle class contrasts sharply with poorer rural areas — the mountains, the oases, the Rif — where services are thinner, illiteracy among older rural women is high, and young people leave for the cities or abroad.

The economy rests on tourism, agriculture (a big employer, badly hit by years of drought), phosphates — Morocco holds most of the world's reserves — and a booming car and aerospace manufacturing sector exporting through the Tangier Med port. Remittances from a large diaspora in France, Spain, and the Low Countries are a major inflow, and the country is investing heavily in solar and wind power.

Water stress and repeated poor rains are the pressing everyday problem for farming regions, and youth unemployment keeps emigration a constant aspiration. A September 2023 earthquake in the High Atlas south of Marrakesh killed around three thousand people and damaged many mountain villages.

The tagine — meat or vegetables slow-cooked in the conical earthenware pot — is the everyday dish, in versions such as lamb with prunes, or chicken with preserved lemon and olives. Couscous is traditionally the Friday meal, steamed over a broth of meat and vegetables. Harira, a tomato, lentil, and chickpea soup, breaks the fast in Ramadan.

For special occasions there is pastilla, a pie of pigeon or chicken with almonds, cinnamon, and sugar in paper-thin warqa pastry; mechoui, whole slow-roasted lamb; and, in Marrakesh, tanjia, meat cooked for hours in an urn in the embers of the hammam furnace. Breads — round khobz, flaky msemen, spongy baghrir — accompany everything, with olives, preserved lemon, and the spice blend ras el hanout.

Mint tea and fresh orange juice are the national drinks. Wine and beer are produced around Meknès but consumed quietly. Street stalls sell snail broth, grilled meats, and, on the coast, sardines straight off the boats.

The imperial cities are the heart of a visit. Marrakesh has the Jemaa el-Fna square with its performers and food stalls, the Koutoubia minaret, the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, and the Majorelle Garden. Fez holds the largest car-free medina in the world, the tanneries, and the Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 and often called the oldest university. Meknes, with the vast gates and granaries of Moulay Ismail, sits near Roman Volubilis and the shrine town of Moulay Idriss; Rabat has the Kasbah of the Udayas and the Hassan Tower.

The blue-washed town of Chefchaouen climbs the Rif. The High Atlas offers trekking to Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa, from the village of Imlil, and gentler valleys such as the Ourika and Aït Bouguemez. South of the mountains lie the kasbah country of Aït Benhaddou and Ouarzazate, the palm-lined Draa Valley, the Dades and Todgha gorges, and the Saharan dune fields of Erg Chebbi at Merzouga and Erg Chigaga at M'Hamid.

On the Atlantic, walled and windswept Essaouira is a fishing port and windsurfing centre, Taghazout draws surfers, and Casablanca has the enormous Hassan II Mosque built out over the sea. Tangier guards the strait, with the Caves of Hercules at Cap Spartel nearby.