Mohammedia

Mohammedia prefecture belongs to the Casablanca-Settat region.¹ In the 2024 census, which lists it as Mohammadia, the municipality of Mohammedia had 194,358 inhabitants and the prefecture 514,057. The prefecture also includes the municipalities of Bni Yakhlef, Ech-Challalate, Aïn Harrouda, Sidi Moussa Ben Ali and Sidi Moussa El Majdoub.²

The city lies on the Zenata coast between the mouths of the Oued Mellah and the Oued Nefifikh, on a bay sheltered from the swell and the north-west wind by two rocky islets and an offshore rocky bar. About 500 metres from the shore the sea is already 10 metres deep; the drawback of the site is the sand that the sea carries into the bay, which has to be dredged regularly.³

Fédala, as Mohammedia used to be called, was a known trading post as early as the Middle Ages and is mentioned by Arab geographers; in the 14th century Christian merchants came here to buy grain and dried fruit. The place was an important market of the Zenata and a stopping point on the route from Rabat to Casablanca. At the beginning of the 20th century its kasbah had a square wall 240 metres long on each side, enclosing a mosque and around 250 inhabitants.⁴

In 1912 the Compagnie du Port de Fédala was founded to build a port and acquire land for a future town; in 1914 the port handled 1,825 tonnes. In 1923 and 1924 the Vacuum Oil Company and Shell du Maroc set up fuel depots there, which committed the port to oil. In 1951 two sea lines went into service to supply the port’s tanks.⁵ The population grew from 2,970 in 1925 to more than 55,000 in 1969.⁶

On 18 February 1959 the Moroccan state and the Italian company ENI, each holding half, decided to build the SAMIR refinery in Mohammedia. King Mohammed V laid the foundation stone on 25 June 1960, and King Hassan II inaugurated the plant on 10 January 1962.⁷ With the refinery, the port’s traffic grew from 401,000 tonnes in 1960 to one million tonnes in 1963.⁸

In 2022 the port of Mohammedia handled 5.5 million tonnes, 17.2 per cent more than the previous year, all of it liquid bulk and just over 95 per cent imports. The largest items were 2.3 million tonnes of diesel and 1.5 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas, plus 878,934 tonnes of fuel oil for the Mohammedia power station. The port received 545 ship calls, and 20 ships were repaired in its shipyard.⁹

The A1 motorway between Rabat and Casablanca, with three lanes in each direction since December 2012, has the Mohammedia Est and Mohammedia Ouest junctions, with Beni Yekhlef in between.¹⁰ Under the rail programme for Greater Casablanca, launched by King Mohammed VI on 24 September 2025, the new Mohammedia Facultés station is being built; in September 2026 work was under way on all ten new stations.¹¹