A country with a rich Islamic tradition

MOROCCO - THE KEEPER OF THE GIBRALTAR DOOR

Arab together with vivid North African traditions comingle with the pro-Western attitudes of the younger generations. Old and new peacefully coexist: even today, Berbers still practicing nomadism, can be met in what is today a modern Morocco.

Morocco is a North African country facing the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Its borders are shared with the Western Sahara, Algeria, and Spain. The original inhabitants are Berbers, more correctly but less commonly called Amazigh. In the second century, Morocco was occupied by the Romans, and later conquered by both the Byzantines and the Arabs. The Spaniards penetrated Morocco in the 16th century but they never presented any serious threat to the country. Closer to us in time, it became a hot spot of tensions between Germany and France, but ultimately it became a French colony. It was not until 1956 that Morocco won its long desired independence.

Arab together with vivid North African traditions comingle with the pro-Western attitudes of the younger generations. Old and new peacefully coexist: even today, Berbers still practicing nomadism, can be met in what is today a modern Morocco.

The capital of Morocco is glorious Rabat, a beautiful and clean city which is both the hectic centre of all major events in the state and a residence to the Royal family. Its quiet, old downtown is the part of town in which no one will pull your sleeve to invite and entice you into shopping. From the old town city fortress, the visitor can admire a beautiful view of the bedroom town of Salé on the other bank of the Bouregreg river as well as the seemingly endless Atlantic Ocean into which it flows. Nearby, a towering lighthouse casts its high beams into the open sea at night. Also in the old downtown one finds the Chellah, the old Roman settlement transformed into a fortress by the Arabs in the medieval period. Still today one sees ancient Roman columns standing next to the 12th century unfinished mosque whose top has been inhabited by storks.

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