Morocco Guide

In a meeting between the Moroccan Prime Minister, Driss Jettou, and the cinema industry professional, on the 26th of this last month of July, a program was adopted to give a boost to the film industry in Morocco. The Maghreb Arabe Presse stated that the Moroccan Minister of Communication and the government spokesman, Nabil Benabdallah, told the press that this strategy aims to promote the Moroccan film industry through “shooting 40 movies a year and drawing some USD 23Mn per annum from foreign productions in Morocco,” which is a part of the 2020 national movie strategy. Many new cinemas will be built in several cities in the forthcoming years.

Dear All Fascinated by North Africa,

Please let me introduce the Fes-Portal, website of the city of Fes.

Fez or Fes (arab. فاس, fr. Fès) – third of the the biggest cities in Marocco, with almost 950 000 population. The ancient capitol of Maurs country and of Marocco founded by Idris II in 807. After French occupation in 1912 the capitol was moved to Rabat. Nowadays Fez becomes the centre of Moroccan economy and tourism as well as the religion with rich heritage of religious architecture: mosque Karaouiyne, Andalousian mosque from IX century and numerous mosques from XIV and XVI centuries. The city is still walled by the old curtains. In 1981 medina – the traditional district of arrabian cities - in Fez was registered on the Unesco world cultural heritage list. In 2001 a botanical garden was opened in Fez.

With Fes-Portal you can learn about the history and culture of the city, special event venues, tips to visit Fes. Fes-Portal closely cooperates with the accommodation specialist in this area of Africa - Riad Selection. Both, they present the authentic character of the city.

A minaret - from the Arabic word manârah – is “a tall slender tower attached to a mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer”. Otherwise called a mi’dhana, it’s a distinctive feature of Islamic architecture.

The world’s tallest minaret is the one of the Hassan II mosque located in Casablanca – Morocco, which is the second largest mosque in the world, after al-masjid al-haraam in Mecca. That minaret is more than 200 meters high.

More than 30.000 persons worked for more than 50 million hours building this one of the largest mosques in the world.

Work started on Hassan II mosque on July 12, 1986, and the building was inaugurated on August 30, 1993, after 7 years of work. Despite the fact that it was first designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau, the mosque gathered thousands of Moroccan artisans who worked on making it originally Moroccan. The mosque is not only a technological challenge, it’s also a wonderful mixture of traditions; it includes today many modern touches, such as a heated floor, electric doors, a sliding roof, and lasers which shine at night from the top of the minaret toward Mecca. The late king Hassan II insisted on having the sliding roof in order to have the three major compounds of life linked in this mosque: water, land and air.

Built by the Atlantic, a big part of the surface of the mosque actually lies over water. Part of the floor is glass, so worshippers can kneel directly over water.

Workers used a lot of material such as granite, plaster, marble, wood.., that were all taken from around Morocco.

This mosque is one of the rare mosques in Morocco that are open for visits to non-Moroccans.

It can receive 100.000 worshippers, 80.000 in the courtyard, and 20.000 in the prayer room.

Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan airlines company, has closed its prayer rooms and prevented its employees from going to the mosque during work hours.

The company stated that there was no official ban concerning prayers, but that it had to do something about the long breaks employees take in order to pray.

Praying five times a day is a crucial part of the Islamic religion, and the RAM’s unofficial ban raised a lot of controversy. Even if Islam is the predominant religion of Morocco, that does not justify taking long breaks from work to pray, knowing that the average period of time needed for every prayer is less than 10 minutes.

Some consider this ban as being political, and a move to cut down Islamist extremism, referring to some events that took place previously; and some consider it an offence to their religious freedom. Other complaints that were made against this company were about pilots and stewards who were not allowed to fast in Ramadan, and female staff who were not allowed to wear the veil.

Moroccan transport minister Karim Ghellab denied that the government has banned prayer times for employees at the RAM, and that they have only been asked to pray in their offices.

RAM employees said that prayer rooms were closed, and will be opened only on Fridays.

One thing that Moroccan cuisine is definitely known by is spices and the magical flavor they add to Moroccan dishes. Spices’ secrets are transmitted from one generation to another. And each ‘cook’ uses their own mix of spices to render their dishes unique.

Of a great diversity, the rich colored set of spices used in Moroccan dishes is all natural, considering their historic origin, from trades with Arabia. As it’s very well said, spices are not used in Morocco to mask the flavor of food, but to enhance it.

Spices are abundant in Morocco, and easily found in local markets –souks- at some shops that sell only spices of all kinds. Just specify for what kind of dishes you want spices exactly and the spices merchant will show you all the varieties and mixtures that are used in Moroccan cuisine. Ras el hanoot [literally “head of the shop”] is for instance a famous complex mixture of up to twenty seven spices, if not more, which makes it quite an expensive spice in comparison with others.

Saffron is another expensive spice. It is usually sold in small plastic containers or airtight bags. Saffron is used also for its colorant effect. Curcuma is otherwise less expensive than saffron and is often used to replace it. Cumin is added to almost every dish, from meats to lamb to chicken; it’s one of the most flavorful spices. Cinnamon that is used for pastilles, couscous sometimes and many desserts among other dishes can be found in powder or stick form. Ginger is traditionally used in its powder form and it is often mixed with saffron in meat dishes. And the list goes on.

Morocco isn’t considered the culinary star of North Africa for nothing. All the savory food is a treasure that one has to discover while visiting Morocco.

The ADSL was launched in Morocco in November 2003, and since then to the end of June 2006, the number of subscribers grew by 300%, with 97% during the second quarter of 2006 alone.

Despite this large growth rate in Internet subscription and in particular ADSL subscriptions in Morocco, the telecom service is estimated to be used by a small minority, and Internet penetration in Morocco is still very low by absolute and relative standards.

The new report, ‘Morocco Internet and Datacomm Landscape’ recently released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers, provides, in 54 pages, a detailed analysis of the Moroccan Internet markets, operational Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country and related information.

The report includes 5-year historical and 5-year projections on Internet uptake and revenues. The report provides, moreover, a detailed and comprehensive picture on the Internet market strategies and regulations, e-commerce, and online content and services landscape, according to the publishers.

The report mentioned in its historical part, the fact that the first Internet connection was established in Morocco by Maroc Télécom in 1995. Later on, and exactly between 1997 and 2000, there were many a creation of ISPs.

Presently, there are 10,051 holders of Internet declarations in the country, with the vast majority for Internet cafés and four broadband providing ISPs, namely: Maroc Télécom, Maroc Connect, Morocco Trade and Development Services SA (MTDS) and Maghreb Net.

The report stated in its 5 year projection part, that the Moroccan Internet market will keep on growing in the few coming years, between 2006 to 2010, especially with the upcoming infrastructure-based competition of multiple fixed operators and lower Internet bandwidth costs.

Saturday November 4^th, 2006, the capital of Souss accommodated a free concert for tolerance, with an aim of sharing values of peace and exchange. Organized by the regional Council of Tourism of the city of Agadir and Electron Libre Production in partnership with TF1, NRJ, 2M, TV5 Monde and TPS Star, this second edition of the concert for tolerance was an excellent opportunity to promote the city of Agadir. This concert will be rebroadcasted on several international channels.

Starting from 2 P.M., people started to show up at the beach of Agadir to attend the repetitions of the artists. 50.000 spectators were expected but the speaker of the concert announced a larger audience of 200.000 persons, coming from various districts of the city, other cities, and also from abroad.

During approximately 3 hours, many singers were there to promote, in a hot ambiance, the values of tolerance and coexistence on scene; among these singers were: Abd Al Malik, Amine, Anggun, Axel Bauer, Faudel, Florent Pagny, Pledge, Helene Ségara, Julie Zenatti, K Maro, Laure Milan, Leslie, Lorie, Magic system, Olivia Ruiz, Shy’ m besides the Moroccan star Samira Said and the winner of studio 2M “Imane”.

The stage of the concert for tolerance occupied an original location, open on the marina of Agadir and designed to look like a Moroccan palace. The program was diversified and of a great quality. All in all, all conditions were combined so that the evening would be exceptional.

As a reminder, the first edition of this concert took place in Tunisia last year, and it was Agadir’s turn this year. For the extraordinary success of this mega event, one has to approve that Agadir is just a great place to hold international events.

a few sites about Marrakech

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrakech
• www.ilovemarrakech.com
• www.marrakech-portal.com
• http://www.morocco.com/destinations/marrakech/
• http://www.essaouira-portal.com

Mint tea is one of the most important aspects of the Moroccan culture, it’s a part of every day life for Moroccans. It’s served to guests, to tourists while shopping in markets, and employees during work hours in their offices.

Moroccan mint tea is easy to prepare, all you need is green gunpowder tea, fresh mint leaves – you should make sure that all stems are removed, or they would make your tea taste bitter - and cubes of sugar, or just any type of sugar. Mint, tea and sugar are put in the teapot, and boiled water is added to them, and then left to steep… The tea is served a few minutes later, and some people would get the teapot on fire to let it boil for a few more minutes.

The way of making tea actually is different from a place to another; people always hold their own secrets on how to make it better. For instance, another way of making tea is to put the gunpowder tea in the teapot and add boiled water to let it steep for a few minutes. The water is then poured away, mint leaves and sugar are added, and finally it’s all let to infuse one last time before it’s served.

The drink takes a darker colour in the south of the country than in the rest of Morocco. The colour of the tea depends on how it was prepared, and how long it was left to steep. Its sweetness depends on the quantity of sugar used to prepare it.

Moroccan teapots have beautiful designs and can be made of metal, aluminium, silver, etc. To complete the tea set, nice decorated hand-painted glasses are used to serve tea. All is put on a three-legged tray called “siniya”.

Fez is simply the cultural and spiritual capital of the kingdom of Morocco. Sheltering the medersas, fondouks, palaces and residences, mosques, fountains and others, the medina is still keeping its monuments like a mark of its pride of its history under various dynasties, from the time that it was Morocco’s capital, to the transfer to the current capital to Rabat; history which could not take of Fez its well deserved denomination of a spiritual and cultural capital.
It is classified within the World Inheritance of UNESCO since 1980.

The town of Fez is composed of three parts: Fez el-jedid (the semi-old), Fez el-bali (the old Fez), and the new Fez (new city). Full with activity and life, the medina - Fez el-jedid and Fez el-bali – constitutes the core of the city. Commercial centers -or quisarriyat-, souks, craft industries, corridors and tunnels… The medina is not just made up of bazaars for the tourists; it constitutes the very industrial part of the city, making of Fez the second largest industrial city of the kingdom.
The primary industry of the medina is that of art, particularly the artisanal activities that are exerted in tiny workshops: joinery with sculpture and painting on wood, wrought iron, engraved copper, goldsmithery, ceramics, the weaving of the silk trade and the embroidery.

Fez has several places that are not to be missed while visiting it, like the souk of the spices el-attarine, and the zaouia of Moulay Idriss I which shelters its tomb, el dabbaghine, borj south and Borj south, bab boujloud, etc.
The town of Moulay Idriss I is also known by its 11 centuries old university, Al quaraouiyin; a reputation which exceeds the Moroccan borders to the Islamic world. This was built by Fatima Al-fihriya at 857, and then enlarged by Youssef Ben Tachefin (1060 – 1106).

Besides all the beauties you can see in Fez, it got a strategic geographical location. All aspects are gathered to make of Fez a one-of-kind city.