Morocco

Morocco: population and cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, Morocco has about 36.5 million residents.

Ethnic composition

The population of Morocco consists of around 60% Arabs and around 40% Berbers. There is also a French minority in the country.

Religious affiliation

99% of the residents of Morocco are Muslims (80% of them Malakite Sunnis). There are also small minorities of predominantly Catholic Christians and Jews.

Overall, only about 0.1% of the population profess Christianity

National languages

About 60% of the population speak various Arabic dialects, another 40% speak Berber languages such as Tachelhit, Tamazight and Tarifit. The French and Spanish languages are partly in use.

Capital and other cities

Rabat

The capital of the Kingdom of Morocco was founded in the 12th century. As the fourth royal city of the country, alongside Meknes, Fès and Marrakech, it can look back on a varied and exciting history.

The city has around 800,000 residents. You can find a detailed description of the city at Goruma here >>>

Agadir

Agadir has about 1 million residents and is located in the southwest directly on the Atlantic Ocean.

Fès

Fès has around 1.2 million residents, making it the third largest city in the country. The city is centrally located in the north of the country.

Marrakech

Colorful, lively, loud and terribly oriental is the Moroccan city with around 900,000 residents. The name goes back to the Berber "mur (n) akush" and can be translated as land of the gods.

You can find a detailed description of the city at Goruma here >>>

Casablanca

To say it right from the start: In Casablanca you don't immediately encounter the Orient, which is not possible because the majority of the city is not older than 60 years. The French colonial architecture, which often only exists as ruins, and the French-tinged cafés and boulevards of the city must first be broken through in an oriental way, which happens in small things such as music, clothes or smells. According to official information, the city has around 3.7 million residents - unofficially, one assumes considerably more. You can find a detailed description of the city at Goruma here >>>

Salé

Salé is the sister city of Rabat and was once a famous handicraft center of Morocco. You can reach it over a bridge. The "Bab Mrisa", probably the oldest gate in Salé (built in the 13th century), leads to the old town. The Mellah (= the Jewish quarter), the pottery quarter at the second Bou-Regreg bridge and the Great Mosque from the Almohad period are well worth seeing.

Tangier

The port city of Tangier has around 850,000 million residents and is located in the north of the country on the Strait of Gibraltar.

Morocco: geography and map

Defined by DigoPaul, Morocco covers a total area of 458,730 km² - not including the controversial area of "Western Sahara" with an area of around 266,000 km². However, Morocco regards the area as part of its national territory. Thereof:

• Forest

  Around 16% of the country is forested. About 10% of these are cork oak forests.

• Meadow and pasture land

  Around 45% of the land is used as meadow or pasture land.

• Fields and fields

  Around 20% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, olives, citrus fruits, cotton, wine, almonds, dates and tobacco.

• Desert

  The Sahara desert occupies about 18% of the country.

Morocco shares a border with the following three countries, although the status of "Western Sahara" has not been clarified under international law.

- Algeria with a length of 1,559 km,

- Western Sahara with a length of 443 km and the two Spanish enclaves

- Ceuta with a length of 6.3 km and

- Melilla with a length of 9.6 km.

Coastal

Morocco has a coast to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean - without taking into account the coast of "Western Sahara" - with a total length of 1,835 km.

Longitude and latitude

Morocco extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Time in Morocco

For Morocco, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time (without summer time) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Marrakech

Marrakech lies at a northern latitude of around φ = 32 °. Rabat, the capital of the country at φ = 34 °. If the sun or its image point is at the northern tropic, i.e. at δ = 23.5 °, summer begins in Marrakech, this is June 21. Then, for the highest position of the sun at noon, according to Eq. 1 (see position of the sun):

32 ° = (90 ° - h) + 23.5 °

so:

At 81.5 °, the sun in Marrakech has the highest level of the entire year above the horizon (more precisely: above the horizon). The highest level of the sun for Rabat is 79.5 ° using the same calculation.

mountains

The highest mountain in the country is the Jbel Toubqâl with a height of 4,165 m. Other high mountains include:

- Jebel M'Goun with a height of 4,107 m

- Jebel Tignousti with a height of 3,825 m

- Ari n'Ayachi with a height of 3,747 m.

Rivers

The longest river in the country is the Oum er Rabia with a length of around 555 km.

Other rivers in the country are:

• the Moulouya with a length of around 515 km
• the rivers Sebou, Oum er Rbia, Tensift, Drâa, Bouregreg, Ziz Loukkos
• the Drâa, a so-called wadi (a river that does not carry any water in the dry season), the 1,100 km long river bed of which has partially dried up.

Lakes

There are no major natural lakes in Morocco.

Moulay Abdellah Reservoir

It is worth mentioning the Moulay Abdellah Reservoir near Rabat. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Sajed al-Nahajan - a brother of the President of the United Arab Emirates - crashed in an ultralight aircraft at the end of March 2010 and drowned in this lake. His body was later found and recovered after an intensive search by divers.

The Sahara

The Sahara covers an area of around 9 million km², making it the largest dry desert in the world. However, only about 20% of the Sahara is what can be described as a sandy desert. In contrast, 80% of it is a stone or rubble desert. The Sahara in northern Africa stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Nile and on the other side to the Red Sea in the east.

In the north it is bounded by the Maghreb - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, in the south lies the Sahel zone. States in which parts of the Sahara are located: Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, Chad and Tunisia. The few residents of the Sahara are Arabs, Berbers and Moors as well as small groups of Tubu or Tuaregs.

A detailed representation of the Sahara can be found under the article about deserts here >>>

Mediterranean, Atlantic

Morocco borders in the northeast of the country with a length of about 380 km on the Mediterranean Sea and in the west with a length of 1,455 km on the Atlantic Ocean.

A detailed description of the Mediterranean here >>>

A detailed description of the Atlantic here >>>