Mmorocco

The Mysterious Megalithic Circle of Mzoura

The Mysterious Megalithic Circle of Mzoura

Mzoura is a small town and rural commune in Settat Province of the Chaouia-Ouardigha region of Morocco. At the time of the 2004 census, the commune had a total population of 10194 people living in 1769 households

Consisting of one hundred and sixty-seven standing stones forming a circle with a diameter of around sixty meters, the ancient site near the rural village of Mzoura has fascinated and puzzled historians for decades. Locals believe that it was the grave of a Mauritanian king dating back to around 3000 BC, but some researchers point to the distinctive similarities between the stone circle of Mzoura and megalithic sites found in Britain, France and Ireland, suggesting those sites and the Moroccan site were erected by a group with the same cultural beliefs.

The use of a Pythagorean right angled triangle of the ratio 12, 35, 37 to construct the ellipse is the same technique used in the British stone ellipses construction. Moreover, it is evident that the megalithic yard was used in both the British sites and the site at Mzoura. While previously it may have been difficult for researchers to pinpoint the ruins of the Mzoura, with the aid of GPS, Google Earth and researched information, history enthusiast Graham Salisbury, has managed to pinpoint the ancient megalithic circle as detailed on his blog "Re-discovery of Moroccan Megalithic Stone Circle".

The term 'megalith' is taken from the Greek words megas (great) and lithos (stone), and is used to describe a large stone used to construct a monument, either as a single stone, possibly carved into a shape, or together with other stones where they are put together without the use of cement or mortar. One of the most famous megalithic structures is Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, but megaliths and megalithic structures are found in a number of places in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Mzoura lies in the Settat Province of Morocco's Chaouia-Ouardigha region, around 11 km from Asilah. Getting to the site is challenging as it is remote with only a very rough road leading to it. The only proper survey to be conducted of the sight was reportedly carried out by James Watt Mavor Jr. of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute based in Massachusetts, USA, in the 1970s, but this survey was enough to determine that Mzoura was noteworthy from an historical point of view, and may be connected to the sites in Britain.

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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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