Overview
Located on the northwest coast of Africa, Morocco is on many people’s bucket lists for good reason. With almost fifty years of traveling, it is hard to pick a favorite place or trip, but for me, Morocco has to be high on that list. Morocco is exotic and historical. I was both amazed and surprised at what I saw and learned about the kingdom. Yes, it is a kingdom. While there is officially a legislature and a constitution, the country is essentially ruled by an authoritarian (and rich) king. From what I could tell, the people mostly don’t mind that they have a king; in fact, they are proud of it.
History
The history of Morocco is long and interesting. Since an Arab invasion in the seventh century, Morocco has been a muslim country. Before we get any further, we need to clear up names. When Morocco was invaded, the people there called themselves Imazighen. The name “Berbers” is a corruption of the word “barbarians”. While modern-day Moroccans understand that most people don’t know the history of the name, they would prefer that they be called Amazigh, the singular of Imazighen. Just don’t call them Arabs; they do not like that.
Also, unlike Gulf State Muslims, Moroccans are not particularly devout, no more than all Americans are particularly devout Christians. In my travels around the country, in big cities and small camps in the desert, I would guess that maybe 20 to 25 percent of women wear a headscarf, a hijab. Very few, but not zero, wore a complete body cover, the el Hayek. We did hear the Imam call to prayer throughout the day, but outside of religious locations, I don’t remeber seeing many people praying. Again, not many, but greater than zero. Maybe I wasn’t in the right place at the right time.
Visiting Morocco
Morocco is a diverse country, geographically, economically, and socially. It ranges from snow-covered peaks in the High Atlas Mountains to sand dunes of the Sahara to the beaches of the Atlantic and Mediterranean. We saw German luxury cars and people leading pack donkeys down crowded streets. We visited modern cities like Casablanca to remote desert camps with a few struggling goats.
If I described everything I saw on my sixteen-day tour of the country at one time, you would stop reading it about now. As with all my trips, I have divided the content into bite-sized pieces. All trips include places (locations with multiple things to see, like a city), sites (single locations with one specific thing to see, like a museum), and experiences (things that don’t fit into the other categories). Those related to this trip are listed here. Each category of articles has its own list page. Check out the Articles item in the menu bar.
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