Morocco

المملكة المغربية
Al Mamlaka al-Maghrebiya

In Detail (Full size)
Official language	Arabic
Capital	Rabat
Largest City	Casablanca
King	Mohammed VI
Prime Minister	Driss Jettou
Area  - Total	Ranked 56th 446,550 km²
Population  - Total (2003)  - Density	31,689,267 70/km² Ranked 36th
Independence	(From France) March 2, 1956
Currency	Dirham
Time zone	UTC
Internet TLD	.MA
Calling Code	212

Morocco is a country of northwest Africa. It has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean which reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea.

Morocco has annexed Western Sahara, but this is not universally recognised.

Table of contents

1 History 2 Politics 3 Provinces 4 Geography 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Culture 8 Miscellaneous topics 9 External links

History

Morocco was a French protectorate from 1912, remaining a Kingdom, and achieved independence in 1956, and it took control over Tangier, formerly an international city. It annexed Western Sahara in the 1970s, but this has not been recognised by many nations.

Politics

The King of Morocco is an active leader, although decreasingly so. Political parties are legal, and a plethora of them exist.

See also: List of political parties in Morocco

Provinces

Geography

Neighbouring countries are Mauritania to the southwest and Algeria to the east and southeast (the Algerian border is closed [1]). There are also four Spanish enclaves on the Mediterranean coast: Ceuta, Melilla Peñon Velez de la Gomera and Peñon de Alhucemas, as well as several islands including Perejil and Chafarinas. Off the Atlantic coast are the Canary Islands and Madeira and across the Mediterranean to the north is Spain.

The capital city is Rabat. Its largest city is Casablanca.

Other cities include Agadir, Dakhla, Essaouira, Fes, Laayoune, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Safi, Smara, Tanger, Tiznit, Salè and Tan-Tan.

• List of cities in Morocco

Demographics

Culture

• Cuisine of Morocco
• List of writers from Morocco
• Music of Morocco

• Communications in Morocco
• Transportation in Morocco
• Military of Morocco
• Foreign relations of Morocco

Morocco's Ministry of Communication offers a page with mp3s of traditional Moroccan music here.

Political, Social and Geographical Facts are given on a German Page: Erdkunde-Online

map of cities

Much of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2002 U.S. Department of State website.