Morocco’s Mediterranean Coast

Morocco’s Mediterranean Coast

If you  planning to go to Morocco in mid May. Apart from travelling around i would like to stay a week at the sea side with sunbathing and swimming in the sea. I know already that the sea temp for example in Agadir is around 17 degrees in mid May which is too cold for me :). What about mediterranean coast is there any chance the the sea will be warmer there? Do you know any budget resorts there?
As the largest lagoon on Morocco's Mediterranean southern shore, rich in natural beauty and biodiversity, Marchica lagoon is ideally suited for the eco-tourism development that was recently inaugurated by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI. In a ceremony that took place on 1 December 2012 in Nador, the King launched the Marchica Lagoon project, which will eventually cover an area of more than 2,000 hectares and feature seven separate zones including residential housing, extensive tourism accommodation, retail facilities, entertainment infrastructure, a golf course and ornithological park.

The agency appointed to oversee the development is committed to preserving the natural landscape and ecology of the lagoon and surrounding dunes – part of the spectacular natural heritage of this exotic North African destination – and to using environmentally proven construction techniques. Renewable energy in the form of solar and wind generated power, will be implemented, and waste water will be recycled. The first two sites to be developed will be Cité des Deux Mers (City of Two Seas) and the Atalayoun Golf Resort, with a village-marina following after that. Construction of Le Village des Pêcuers (The Fishermen’s Village) is scheduled to start in 2014 with a finish date of 2018. La Baie de Flamands (The Flamingo Bay) should start construction in 2015, with development of the Marchica Sport site planned for 2017. The final phase of the Marchica Lagoon development will be Les Vergers de Marchica (The Marchica Orchards), beginning in 2019.

Two strips of sandbank separate the semicircular lagoon from the Mediterranean Sea. To the north is the 10 km long strip called Boukana, with the 12.5 km strip of sand to the south known as Aljazeera. The mouth of the lagoon is around 120 meters wide. The cities of Nador, Beni Ansar and Kariat lie on the lagoon's shoreline, with the Spanish enclave of Melilla a few kilometers to the north. Home to a wide variety and vast numbers of waterbirds, Marchica was listed as a Ramsar site in January 2005 and is also listed as important to birds by BirdLife International, while being recognized by Moroccan authorities as being a Site of Biological and Ecological Interest (SIBE). No doubt the combination of natural beauty and world class facilities will make Marchica Lagoon a popular destination for visitors to Morocco.



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A Language of Morocco

A Language Problem Case Study of MoroccoExpanding on yesterday's question of why illiteracy remains a pertinent problem in Morocco, I created this case study that examines Morocco's language problem.
Let's take a look at the linguistic barriers facing two hypothetical children growing up in Morocco. The first one, we'll call Simo. He's from an Arabic speaking part of Morocco and represents the 56% of Morocco's urban population. The second one is Ito. She's from the High Atlas Mountains and speaks Tamazight, one of the Amazigh dialects. She represents Morocco's rural population.
Toddlers

• Simo speaks Darija, the oral Moroccan Arabic dialect at home with his family. As it is only an oral language, it is not an official language of Morocco.

• Ito speaks Tamazight with her family. This is one of three Amazigh dialects in Morocco but is still not an officially recognized language.

Primary School

• Simo is taught in Fuhsa, or Modern Standard Arabic. All the textbooks are written in Fuhsa as is the Qu'ran. He begins learning how to read and write using the Arabic script.

• Ito may be taught either in Fuhsa or in Tamazight. In 2003, the government issued a new script, called Tifinagh which would be used to transcribe the three Amazigh dialects. It does not resemble the Arabic or Latin scripts and is read from left to right. Ito begins to learn how to read and write using theTifinagh script even though her older brothers and sisters never learned it, nor did her parents.

Secondary School

• Simo now speaks Darija at home with his friends and family. At school his studies are taught in Fuhsa and he reads and writes the Arabic Script. In high school, he will begin to take French classes, which, besides Arabic, is the other official language of Morocco. With this new language, he will learn to read and write using the Latin Script.

• Ito now speaks Tamazight at home with her friends and family. She is taught in Fuhsa and/or Tamazight, so she probably reads and writes both using theArabic script and the Tifinagh script. If she makes it to high school, she will probably start to learn either French or English at which point she's going to have to figure out the Latin script.

If both Simo and Ito have made it through high school, they probably have various levels of fluency in several of Morocco's main languages: Darija, Fuhsa, Tamazight, and French. As both Darija and the Amazigh dialects are essentially oral languages, they are mostly spoken and rarely written; Fuhsa, on the other hand, is just the opposite-- it is written and studied, but rarely spoken in Morocco
So now you can imagine what kind of struggle these two children have gone through just to get this far. They may come from different regions of Morocco and from families of different socio-economic status, however they are still facing the same predicament: they must attain literacy in a society that celebrates numerous languages but has yet to master a single one.
By the time they get to University, if they're still trucking and want to add one more notch on their belt, they may choose to study English.

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Moroccan Languages

Moroccan Languages

Morocco is a bilingual country with Arabic and French as official languages. Arabic is widely spoken by common masses while French is taught in schools. Therefore, French is extensively used in government, business and elite circles. In the city of Casablanca, English is well known and widely used. Spanish is quite popular in the north of Morocco. More than 40% of the Moroccans are of Berber origin. Though Berbers got converted to Islam eventually, their ethnic and linguistic affiliations have remained with them till this day. Therefore, Berber dialects such as Tachelhit, Tamazight and Tarifit are widely used in Morocco, even in journalism and mass media.


Though most of us are not born linguists, striving to achieve even a small level of communication between ourselves and the inhabitants of the country we are visiting can be a most rewarding endeavor. Because of the varied historical influences on the people of Morocco, there is a large variety of languages spoken throughout the country. In order to help you in your pursuit to communicate better, we have provided a list of these languages.

Communicating to some degree in one of the nine living languages still spoken in Morocco can greatly enhance your experiences in the country. When Moroccans note your attempts to communicate, they are often treat you quite differently are become much more friendly and helpful. Thus, a world of adventure becomes opened to you, simply because you put a little effort into it.

Fortunately for us, most Moroccans are capable of speaking more than just one of their native languages. At least half of the country's population is capable of speaking French and many of those involved in the tourism industry are capable of speaking some English and a few other foreign languages as well. This means you should be able to get by in most parts of the country quite easily without even trying very hard. But if you really want to open doors or have a less frustrating adventure, you should really try to speak a little Arabic or French.

There are several different forms of the various languages spoken in Morocco, as well as a few that are non-verbal. The following is a breakdown of the 11 listed languages that are or were spoken in Morocco:

Living Languages
Moroccan Arabic - This is the official language of Morocco. Though it is somewhat different from most other types of Arabic, most Moroccans can understand conventional Arabic.

Hassaniyya Arabic - Also known as Moor. Over 40 000 in Southern Morocco people speak this form of Arabic.

Judeo-Moroccan Arabic - Only about 8 925 people speak this form of Arabic. It is generally confined to certain small areas in Morocco.

Standard Arabic - Most Moroccans can understand this form of Arabic which is spoken and written much throughout the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. Most Arabic television programs are in this form of Arabic.

Moroccan Sign Language - There is a large number of deaf men who speak sign language in the city of Oujda. It is hard to determine how many women are capable of sign language as they do not speak it in the streets. There are a few small deaf schools which teach the language though it is not generally used in Rabat, Tangier and Casablanca. Most people who use MSL cannot read or write Arabic. MSL is very different from American Sign Language and people conversant in the two sign languages would struggle to understand each other.

Spanish - Over 20 000 people in Morocco are capable of speaking Spanish. Besides being only a short distance away, Spain also acted as a protectorate of Morocco for a while after 1912. This resulted in Spanish influence in culture and language.

Tachelhit - 3 to 4 million of the people of Morocco speak this form of Berber.

Central Atlas Tamazight - This is also spoken by roughly 3 million of the inhabitants of Morocco. It is a dialect of Berber.

Tarifit - a lesser used dialect of the Berber language. It is spoken by about 1.5 million people in Morocco.

Extinct Languages
Ghomara - was a dialect of Berber which is generally considered to no longer be in use.

Senhaja de Srair - this is the fifth dialect of Berber which has also unfortunately fallen into disuse.

Other Languages
French - though not seen as an indigenous language in Morocco, at least half of the population is capable of speaking it. This is due to the strong French influence during the period of 1912 to 1956, which has also left a large amount of French architecture in parts of Morocco.


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