DEATH & BEAUTY - Ancient Morocco

Morocco (Arabic: المغرب‎ al-Maghrib ; Berber: ⴰⵎⵕⵕⵓⴽ or ⵍⵎⴰⵖⵔⵉⴱ Ameṛṛuk or Lmaġrib; French: Maroc), officially the Kingdom of Morocco. Arabic name al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyyah (Arabic: المملكة المغربية‎) translates to "The Western Kingdom". Al-Maghrib (Arabic: المغرب‎), or Maghreb, meaning "The West", is commonly used. The Kingdom of Morocco is the most westerly of the North African countries. It has Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, and a rugged mountain interior.

Morocco has a population of over 32 million and an area of 446,550 km² (172,410 sq mi); if Western Sahara is included that would be 710,850 km² (274,460 sq mi). The political capital is Rabat, although the largest city is Casablanca; other major cities include Marrakesh, Tangier, Tetouan, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, and Nador. Morocco has a history of independence not shared by its neighbours. Its rich culture is a blend of Arab, Berber (indigenous African) and also other African and European influences.

A developing country, also called a less-developed country (LDC), is a nation with a low living standard, underdeveloped industrial base, and low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. There is no universal, agreed-upon criteria for what makes a country developing versus developed, and which countries fit these two categories, although there are general reference points such as the size of a nation's GDP compared to other nations.

Countries with more advanced economies than other developing nations, but have not yet demonstrated signs of a developed country, are often categorized under the term newly industrialized countries.

Fes el Bali (Arabic: فاس البالي‎) (English: Old fes ) is the oldest and walled part of Fes, Morocco. Fes el Bali was originally founded as the capital of the Idrisid Dynasty in between 789 and 808 AD. Besides being famous for having the oldest university in the world Fes el Bali, with a total population of 156 000, is also believed to be the biggest car-free urban area in the world.

Fes el Bali was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1981 under the name Medina of Fes. The world heritage site includes Fes el Bali's urban fabric and walls and a buffer zone around Fes el Bali.

Fes el Bali is, along with Fes Jdid and the French-created Ville nouvelle, one out the 3 main districts in Fes.

The following cities have defensive walls.

North Africa, Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and often Mauritania are the Maghreb or Maghrib, while Egypt and Sudan are referred to as Nile Valley. Egypt is a transcontinental country by virtue of the Sinai Peninsula, which is in Asia. North Africa also includes a number of Spanish possessions, Ceuta and Melilla (tiny Spanish exclaves or islets off the coast of Morocco). The Canary Islands and the Portuguese Madeira Islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of the African mainland, are sometimes included in considerations of the region.

The Maghreb (Berber: Tamazgha, ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵖⴰ, Arabic: المغرب, al-Maghrib) is usually defined as much or most of the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. The traditional definition as being the region including the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, was later superseded, especially since the 1989 formation of the Arab Maghreb Union, by the inclusion of a fifth nation, Mauritania, and of the disputed territory of Western Sahara (mostly controlled by Morocco). During the Al-Andalus era in Spain, the Maghreb's inhabitants, Maghrebis, were known as "Moors"; the Muslim areas of Spain in those times were usually included in contemporary definitions of the Maghreb—hence the use of 'Moor' or 'Moors' to describe the Muslim inhabitants of Spain by Christian and other Western sources.

Historical terms for the region or various portions of it include Numidia, Libya, and Africa in classical antiquity. The term maghrib is in origin an Arabic word for "west, occident", denoting the westernmost territories that fell to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century. Today, it is used as a proper noun denoting the Maghreb, also known as المغرب العربي al-maghrib al-ʻarabīy "the Arab Maghreb" or المغرب الكبير al-maghrib al-kabīr "the great Maghreb" in Arabic. The definite form al-maghrib is used for the country of Morocco in particular. The Berber language's alternative term for the region, Tamazgha (meaning: land of the Berbers), has been popularized by Berber activists since the second half of the 20th century.