A Bridge Through History and... Geography
At crossroads of West Africa and Southern Europe, Morocco has a unique geographical position. With two long seashores, one on the Atlantic and the other on the Mediterranean and with the Sahara to the south, Morocco is both isolated and open. The country is more accessible from the east via Algeria and Tunisia.

The Greek legend of Hercules who fought and defeated the giant Atlas and subsequently married his widow Tinge and founding for her the city of Tangier took place in the northwestern tip of Africa. The Pillars of Hercules appeared in the works of Plato.

Man has lived here for more than three hundred thousand years ago according to archeologists.

The original inhabitants of Morocco are the Berbers. The name is derived from the Greek word Barbaros applied originally to non-Greeks. The Berbers refer to themselves by their individual tribe names and more generally as Imazighen or 'Free men'.

There were native rulers in 2000 BC. The first known invasions of Morocco were Phoenician in 1200 BC and Roman in 46 BC. The principal Roman centers were Volubilis (near Meknes), Chella (Rabat) and Tingis (Tangier). The main center was Carthage further east in Tunisia. The hammam (steam bath), the jellaba and the burnous (derived from the toga) are all remnants of half a thousand years of Roman existence.

Before Islam, the Berbers had adopted Judaism and Christianity and abandoned both when they could do so safely. The Berbers had resisted many attempts to subjugate them, and finally accepted only the Arabs as natural partners. Since the seventh century, the history and civilization of the region in general is Berber-Arab. Five major dynasties have ruled over Morocco during the past twelve hundred years.

Morocco treasures some of the finest Islamic Architecture. It was by way of Morocco and Moorish Spain that Greek philosophy and mathematics were transmitted to Western Europe. The oldest university of the world, the Qarawiyin in Fez, was one of the major educational institutions of the Middle Ages.