Berkane

Berkane is the capital of the province of the same name and lies on the Triffa plain, overlooked to the south by the Beni Snassen massif.¹ In the 2024 census the town had 99,069 inhabitants and the province 284,061; 61.8 per cent of the province's population live in towns.²

By an order of the Minister of Agriculture of 30 April 2010, published in the Bulletin officiel of 5 August 2010, “Clémentine de Berkane” is recognised as a geographical indication.³ Its area is the Triffa plain between the Mediterranean to the north, the Oued Kiss and the prefecture of Oujda-Angad to the east, the Beni Snassen range to the south and the mountains of the Pre-Rif to the west. It includes the municipalities of Boughriba, Chouihia, Zegzel, Aghbal, Laatamna, Fezouane and Madagh.⁴

Two varieties are approved, the Berkane clone and Nules.⁵ The fruit is seedless, with a reddish-orange, easily peeled skin and a juice content of 40 to 56 per cent. The ripening period runs from early October to early January.⁶

In the Beni Snassen massif lies the Grotte de Taforalt.⁷ Morocco submitted it for the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on 1 July 1995; the entry describes a gallery about 55 metres deep whose layers record the Upper Palaeolithic of North Africa, and a necropolis with around a hundred burials.⁸ The municipality of Tafoughalt had 2,366 inhabitants in 2024.⁹

In the cave, also known as the Grotte des Pigeons, archaeologists found perforated shells of the sea snail Nassarius gibbosulus, coated with red ochre and, judging by the traces of use, some of them worn suspended. The layers containing them were dated to about 82,000 years ago.¹⁰ In 2018 a research team published the genomes of seven people from Taforalt, around 15,000 years old, who are assigned to the Iberomaurusian culture.¹¹

On the western boundary of the municipality of Saïdia the Moulouya flows into the Mediterranean.¹² Its estuary and floodplain have been a Ramsar site of 2,340 hectares since 15 January 2005.¹³ The information sheet calls it an important stopover for migratory birds and lists, among others, Moussier's redstart, the marbled duck and Audouin's gull.¹⁴

Saïdia belongs to Berkane province and had 10,514 inhabitants in 2024.¹⁵ On 19 June 2009 Mediterrania Saïdia, the first resort of the Plan Azur, opened there.¹⁶