Study, Work or Volunteer in Morocco

Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, lies across the Strait of Gibraltar on the Mediterranean and looks out on the Atlantic from the northwest shoulder of Africa. It has a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 square kilometers which is about one-tenth larger than California. The capital of Morocco is Rabat and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has international borders with Algeria to the east, Spain to the north, and Mauritania to the south via its Western Saharan territories.

The full name of Morocco, in Arabic, is al-Mamlaka al-Magribiyya which means “The Western Kingdom.” Morocco which is a latinized name originates from Medieval Latin “Morroch.” It referred to the name of the former Almoravid and Almohad capital, Marrakech. The word “Marrakech” is presumably derived from the Berber word Mur-Akush, meaning Land of God.

The climate in the country is Mediterranean, which becomes more extreme towards the interior regions where it is mountainous. If it is mountains you love, Morocco has them in abundance, rising the Rif into the Middle Atlas and on into the extraordinary contours of the High Atlas.

The Arabs conquered Morocco from the Carthage and Rome in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Berbes ruled both Morocco and Spain, which is only 9 mile across the Mediterranean Sea, between the 11th and 13th centuries. Morocco won its independence in 1956 from France and Spain.

The official language in the country is Classical Arab. There are some foreign settlers in the country who speaks Spanish and English.