Morocco in Depth

This third book is for those who have already had a taste of Morocco and want to understand it from the inside: the people who made its history, its cities, its books and films, its economy, and the rules nobody writes down but everyone knows.

Each chapter is a doorway. Behind it lie whole libraries.

Founded at the end of the 8th century, Fez is the country’s spiritual and scholarly capital. Its medina, Fes el-Bali, is one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world: donkeys and handcarts, in thousands of lanes.

There you pass al-Qarawiyyin, the Marinid madrasas, the tanneries and, on every corner, a workshop. Fes el-Jdid, the “new” town of the 13th century, holds the royal palace and the old mellah.

Founded around 1070 by the Almoravids, Marrakesh gave the country its name: Morocco, Maroc and Marruecos all come from Marrakesh. In Turkish, though, Morocco is Fas, after Fez.

Below the Koutoubia, Jemaa el-Fna square fills every evening with storytellers, musicians and smoke from the grills. Further on, the gardens: the Menara, the Agdal, and the Majorelle Garden with its famous blue.

Meknes is the work of one man, Moulay Ismail, who ringed it with forty kilometres of walls and gave it giant granaries and stables. Its monumental gate, Bab Mansour, is one of the finest in the country.

Rabat, the capital since 1912, brings together the Kasbah of the Udayas, the unfinished Hassan Tower and the Mohammed V Mausoleum in a modern city on the World Heritage list. Across the Bou Regreg river: Salé.

Morocco gave the world one of history’s greatest travellers, Ibn Battuta, and one of the first great geographers of Africa, al-Hasan al-Wazzan, known as Leo Africanus, raised in Fez, whose Description of Africa came out in 1550.

It has also been written about a great deal by others: ambassadors, painters, novelists. Several of those books, now in the public domain, are waiting on the lower shelf.

Morocco holds about 70% of the world’s known phosphate reserves, essential for fertilisers. But the economy has diversified: in 2024 the country became Africa’s largest car producer, with factories in Tangier, Casablanca and Kenitra.

Tanger Med, opened in 2007, is the busiest container port in Africa and the Mediterranean. Since 2018 the Al Boraq high-speed train has linked Tangier and Casablanca, a first in Africa.

With little oil or gas of its own, Morocco is betting on sun and wind. Near Ouarzazate, the Noor complex is among the largest concentrated solar power plants in the world.

The goal: renewables making up more than half of the country’s electricity capacity by 2030. In June 2026, the minister Leila Benali came to EPFL to talk about it, as APML’s guest.

In 2022, in Qatar, the Atlas Lions reached the World Cup semi-finals, and a whole continent celebrated. In 2023 the women’s team played its first World Cup and made it out of the group stage.

In 2030 Morocco will host the World Cup with Spain and Portugal: stadiums, trains and airports are being transformed for the occasion.

In September 2023, when an earthquake struck the High Atlas, the whole country’s outpouring of solidarity with the villages hit left a lasting mark.

People rarely say no outright. An inchallah, a “we’ll see”, a smile: it is up to you to read between the lines. Likewise, nobody will tell you directly what bothers them; they will let you understand.

Among friends, time is flexible: an invitation “at 8 pm” often starts later. At work and at university, on the other hand, people are on time.

And when someone says daba, “now”, it can mean right away… or in a while.

A guest is sacred: they get the best seat and the best share, and their host insists they have more. To decline politely, put your hand on your heart and say shba’t, hamdoullah: “I have eaten enough, thank God”.

You never arrive empty-handed, and an invitation is always returned.

At the hammam, people wash together, men with men and women with women, with black soap and a scrubbing glove, the kessa: a moment to relax and talk.