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Morocco. On his right hand is the Mediterranean and on his left is the Atlantic. Situated at the northwest corner of Africa, our country’s unique position, if geography is destiny then Morocco is enchanted.
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Might this not be the most exotic place on earth? Situated on the northwest corner of Africa, Morocco bears the southern half of the pillars of Hercules, the edge of the known world the portal to the vast unknown. The northern is Gibraltar. On her right hand, she watched as the nations of old ebbed and flowed in the great Sea, the Mediterranean. To her left lay infinite, the edge of the world, Atlantis. It is no wonder that Morocco has produced such a unique and beautiful culture. and then more added
although so close to Europe and washed by the Mediterranean,
Casablanca, Marrakesh, the place the sun sets, the west. Is this the most romantic place in the world? the most exotic on earth? Northward it gazes upon the pillars of hercules1, Gibraltar beyond and its own northernmost prominitory. easteward it ponders placidly the Mediterranean, the cradle of western covilization, westward its showres are wave washed by the might atlantaic, an ocean incomprehensible to the mere mediterranean dwellers on its right hand. The pillars of Hercules to the ancients were the edge of the knwon world. to the right they contemplated the rich unfolding kaleidioscope of civilizations in the medieranea. to the left? there the would gaze in quietude and wonder on the infinite unknown. Platosaid that Atlantis was out there.
blue tiles buildings, yellow dunes, whitecapped oceans and mountains
The westmost land, westward from the middle west and the near west, the land where the sunsets, the sacred land, the land of God.. deriving its name form marrakesh, and the magrihb, the west.
distnat from rome and constantiople, though influences by these empires, morocco developed on its own, its own culture, its own cultural ties, its own government its own lifestyle.
different from other mediterranean dwellers, the earl morrocons watched the sun set evey day over an ocean, seemingly infinite. who can doubt that adventurers aroce amng them who dared that sea, wo went forth, mostly never returning, but some did, with tales. perhaps it was moroccon borne tales that Plato heard and recorded under the heading Atlantis.In the 16th century, Ottoman invaders from Algeria attempted to add Morocco to their empire, thus threatening the country’s independence. They, too, were thwarted, leaving Morocco virtually the only Arab country never to experience Ottoman rule. 2
By the late 17th century, Morocco’s cultural and political identity as an Islamic monarchy was firmly established. 3
Morocco’s isolationism in the era of European wars4
world wars era and early 21st century
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Footnotes
- Pillars of Hercules, two promontories at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar at Gibraltar, and the southern pillar has been identified as one of two peaks: Jebel Moussa (Musa), in Morocco, or Mount Hacho (held by Spain), near the city of Ceuta (the Spanish exclave on the Moroccan coast). The pillars are fabled to have been set there by Heracles (Hercules) as a memorial to his labour of seizing the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon. https://www.britannica.com/place/Pillars-of-Heracles
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco/Education#ref214378
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco/Education#ref214378
- In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Europe was preoccupied with revolution and continental war, Morocco withdrew into a period of isolation. On the eve of the modern era, despite their geographic proximity, Moroccans and Europeans knew little about each other. https://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco/Education#ref214378