OpenCage 👉🌍

2/ Morocco 🇲🇦 - officially the Kingdom of Morroco - is a country in Northern Africa, part of the Arab Maghreb which includes Algeria 🇩🇿, Libya 🇱🇾 ,Mauritania 🇲🇷, Tunisia 🇹🇳, and the disputed Western Sahara 🇪🇭 (more on that later).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb

Its English name comes from the Spanish “Marruecos,” which stems from Marrakech, the fourth-largest city in the country. Rabat is the capital, while Casablanca is the largest city.

So far, so good. So what's #geoweird?

Like 17 May at 15:03 | Open on en.osm.town

9 comments

OpenCage 👉🌍

3/ Morocco 🇲🇦 is an ethnically and linguistically diverse state with a population of roughly 40 million.

The two official languages are Moroccan Arabic, known as Darija, and Berber, or Tamazight. French is taught universally and the language of commerce and culture. Morocco is a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

The end result is very complicated street signs, with not just three different languages but three different scripts.

#geoweirdness

17 May at 15:09 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

4/ It’s worth pausing to look at Berber a little more.

There are roughly 6 million speakers, at least 3 major dialects (Tashelhit, Tamazight and Tarift) and has 3 orthographies (the Berber Latin alphabet, the Arabic alphabet and the traditional Tifinagh script).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Moroccan_Amazigh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_languages

Here’s the Tifinagh alphabet:

17 May at 15:14 | Open on en.osm.town

Stéphan Mestach

@opencage in term of geoweirdness... never show a google issued map to officials/clerk of the country. They will soon leave you and you'll probably end up in a diplomatic incident.

I don't know the open street map position on this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sahara

17 May at 15:22 | Open on mastodon.green

OpenCage 👉🌍

5/ Leaving linguistics behind, let's move on to geographic curiosities with the interesting case of Tangier.

Located in northwestern Morocco 🇲🇦 from 1925 to 1956 (except for a Spanish occupation from 1940-45) the city was an "international zone", co-governed/administered by France 🇫🇷, Spain 🇪🇸, Britain 🇬🇧, the US 🇺🇸from 1925 to 1956 and separate from the rest of Morocco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangier_International_Zone

#geoweirdness

17 May at 15:22 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

6/ Until 1956 northern Morocco 🇲🇦 was a protectorate of Spain 🇪🇸

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_protectorate_in_Morocco

Even today there are two Spanish "autonomous cities" on the Mediterranean coast: Ceuta and and Melilla

#geoweirdness

17 May at 15:31 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

7/ The two cities are the largest of the "Plazas de soberanía" a series of smaller Spanish 🇪🇸 territories along the northern coast of Morocco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plazas_de_soberan%C3%ADa

Since independence in 1956 Morocco 🇲🇦 has claimed all of them.

One that deserves special mention is Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera. It was an island until 1930 when a major sandstorm created an 85m land connection - the world's shortest land border!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pe%C3%B1%C3%B3n_de_V%C3%A9lez_de_la_Gomera

#geoweirdness

7/ The two cities are the largest of the "Plazas de soberanía" a series of smaller Spanish 🇪🇸 territories along the northern coast of Morocco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plazas_de_soberan%C3%ADa

Since independence in 1956 Morocco 🇲🇦 has claimed all of them.

One that deserves special mention is Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera. It was an island until 1930 when a major sandstorm created an 85m land connection - the world's shortest land border!

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17 May at 15:39 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

8/ We can now turn south to the dispute surrounding Western Sahara (ISO code "EH") - the world's largest disputed territory.

A 🇪🇸 Spanish-occupied territory until 1975, roughly 80% of the territory is now governed by the 🇲🇦 Moroccan government, whilst the remaining 20% is ruled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic 🇪🇭, a partially recognised state.

The dispute has been running for over 50 years, regularly flaring up into full blown war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sahara_conflict

#geoweirdness

8/ We can now turn south to the dispute surrounding Western Sahara (ISO code "EH") - the world's largest disputed territory.

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17 May at 15:46 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

9/ As part of the conflict Morocco 🇲🇦 has built a series of massive sand walls ("berms") to prevent movement of fighters of the Polisario Front - the nationalist movement of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic 🇪🇭

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan_Western_Sahara_Wall

#geoweirdness

17 May at 15:52 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

10/ The conflict has largely simmered on without much international attention, though in 2020 it came back into focus when the United States 🇺🇸 recognised 🇲🇦 Morocco's annexation of what it refers to as its "Southern Provinces" as part of diplomatic normalisation agreement talks between Morocco and Israel 🇮🇱

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Morocco_normalization_agreement

#geoweirdness

17 May at 15:57 | Open on en.osm.town