Morocco , the jewel of the Mediterranean

Morocco , the jewel of the Mediterranean

Marrakech is the largest of the four royal cities in Morocco , and it was a favorite playground for the rich and famous for almost a century. Well-known celebrities maintain sumptuous villas here , nestled in the foothills of the great chain of the Atlas Mountains . Sea , snow, desert - all are within easy reach . Madonna , Gerard Depardieu , Kate Moss and Sir Richard Branson all own homes near Marrakech . Sarah Jessica Parker, José Carreras , Selma Hayek , Elton John , Juliette Binoche, Adrien Brody , Jennifer Aniston, Orlando Bloom, and Paloma Picasso are all frequent visitors to Marrakech and speak warmly of his charm.

Much of this glittering crowd were on hand for the reopening of historically important luxury hotel in Marrakech , La Mamounia. If you have never been treated like royalty and feel the experience (if only for a day or two ! ) You must include a stay at La Mamounia when you visit Morocco. It is not expensive. A couple can stay at La Mamounia for something around $ 250 per person per night , which is now the cost of a mid-range hotel in Manhattan.

While you are in Marrakech , do not miss the famous square in the heart of the Medina called Djemaa El- Ena , perhaps the only tourist attraction in Morocco . The buildings that you see lining the central plaza were probably set up there for a thousand years . These hectares of land have been teeming with people constantly since . During sunny hours , the place is filled with juice vendors in stalls, mobile water vendors who pour water from leather bags, and troops of street artists - snake charmers who try to induce tourists to pose with them for a fee and musicians with Barbary macaques , much like organ grinder monkeys , and birds. At the end of the snake oil salesmen of the afternoon , the street magicians , and poets reach them. As dark descends , Djemaa el Ena - filled food stalls and portable charcoal braziers red hot , and that is when the people of Marrakech are themselves more likely to take their famous place to enjoy the equivalent Moroccan outside fast food.

For a country of this size , Morocco encompasses many extremes of microclimate and environment . From the heights of the Atlas Mountains, where it is cold and snowy than on Rocky Mountain peaks , you can also find on the same day of the combustion gigantic sand dunes of Erg Chebbi in the Sahara. These impressive features of the landscape, frozen waves in the sand, but shaped by the wind as much as the waves of the ocean in the form are 150 meters high and consists of a thin sand sprayed red , yellow , orange is the mark of the Sahara.

Tours of Erg Chebbi are generally organized from a small village in the south of Morocco , about 30 miles from the Algerian border , called Merzouga, a city with the typical blue paint on the houses that we see if often in Morocco, the country of sapphire blue. Long thought very dry in recent years , geologists have discovered a huge underground water freshwater . It will provide water to Merzouga for hundreds of years.

Part of the charm of Morocco is that it is a country charm to the contrary , and then when you have known the sand dunes and saw the sunset in the Sahara you can time for the sea and a different wind the desert winds . The fishing village of Essaouira in Morocco is the place to enjoy the trade winds blowing in the protected bay . These winds make Essaouira The location of choice for the best windsurfing and kite surfing beaches in the Mediterranean . Since the time Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman have created their classic film "Casablanca" in 1942 , Morocco has occupied a special place in the heart of all vacationers, especially Americans . Morocco , too, has probably the longest and best in terms of tourism North Africa reputation with a brilliant record that dates back to before the Second World War. This is the year that most American never know Morocco for the first time.