The official name of Morocco is the Kingdom of Morocco.
Morocco is about the same size as the state of California.
There are over 32 million people living in Morocco (32,649,130) as of July 2013.
The capital city of Morocco is Rabat, although the largest city is Casablanca with nearly 4 million people.
Other major cities in Morocco include Marrakech, Tangier, Tetouan, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, and Nador.
Ethnically, Moroccans are predominately of Berber (North African indigenous) and Arabic decent.
The Berber people have been living in
North Africa for centuries, historically living in the mountainous areas
but in more recent times moving to the cities for work.
The official languages of Morocco are
Berber and Arabic. The distinctive group of Moroccan Arabic dialects are
collectively called Darija. French and to a lesser extent Spanish and
English are also spoken in the country.
From 1912 to 1956, Morocco was divided
into French and Spanish zones. There are just two small
Spanish-controlled areas still remaining today (Ceuta and Melilla).
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Morocco is quite a mountainous country with the Atlas
Mountains running from northeast to the southwest through the center
and the Rif Mountains located in the north.
The southeast of the country is
intersected by the Sahara Desert and direct to the south lies the
Western Sahara. Morocco claims that the Western Sahara is part of its
territory and refers to the area as its Southern Provinces, although
officially this area is still a disputed territory.
The currency in Morocco is called the Dirham.
Moroccan cities commonly have mosques
with beautiful towers called minarets, market areas called bazaars, old
medieval sections called medinas and old fortresses called kasbahs.
Green tea with mint and sweetened with sugar is a popular beverage in Morocco.
The most famous of Moroccan dishes is
couscous, other popular dishes include pastilla, tajine, and harira.
Chicken is the most widely eaten meat.
There are very large concentrations of Moroccan migrants living in France (over 1 million) and Spain (over 700 thousand).
The most popular sport in Morocco is
football (soccer), the Moroccan national team became the first African
and Arab country to make to the 2nd round of a World Cup when they did
so in 1986.
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The university called al-Qarawiyin was
founded in the city of Fes in 859 as a madrasa (an Arabic educational
institution) and is considered by some to be the oldest university in
the world.
For more information, check out maps of Morocco or take a closer look at the Moroccan flag.
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