Saïdia

Saïdia lies on the Mediterranean in the far north-east of Morocco and belongs to Berkane province in the Oriental region.¹ To the west the Moulouya forms the municipal boundary, to the east the Oued Kiss.² At the 2024 census Saïdia had 10,514 inhabitants in 3,220 households, and Berkane province 284,061.³

The core of the town is a kasbah that Sultan Moulay Hassan I had built in 1883 on the left bank of the Oued Kiss.⁴ It covers 15,600 square metres with about a hundred houses, ramparts, earthen buildings and gates of its own; in 1936 it had 210 inhabitants.⁵ In summer 2008 master craftsmen restored the walls of the old medina.⁶

Saïdia’s sandy beach is 14 kilometres long.⁷ The Ramsar information sheet counts the beach between Saïdia and Ras El Ma among the most extensive sandy beaches of the Mediterranean.⁸ In 2025 two of the municipality’s beaches flew the Blue Flag, Saïdia Municipale and Station Touristique Saïdia Ouest.⁹

Mediterrania Saïdia, the first resort of the Plan Azur, was opened on 19 June 2009 in the presence of King Mohammed VI.¹⁰ In its first summer season the three resort complexes that had opened recorded more than 200,000 overnight stays, whereas the whole Oriental region otherwise counted around 100,000 a year.¹¹ The buildings have no more than two upper floors, and a six-kilometre public promenade runs in front of the first row.¹²

Since 2012 the Société de Développement de Saïdia has been developing the resort further; it is a CDG subsidiary founded in December 2011, owned 66 per cent by Madaef and 34 per cent by the Ithmar fund.¹³ By 2019 it had invested around 1.7 billion dirhams, and in that period three five-star hotels, a second golf course and a water park were built.¹⁴ The two 18-hole golf courses, Saïdia Lacs and Teelal, cover 75 and 82 hectares.¹⁵

The King inaugurated the second phase of the marina on the same day, 19 June 2009.¹⁶ At that time the port had more than 800 berths for boats of 7 to 50 metres on over 290,000 square metres; an extension to 1,350 berths was planned.¹⁷ In 2019 Le Desk reported 850 berths on a water area of 322,120 square metres.¹⁸ The marina was the first in Morocco to receive the Blue Flag, in 2018 according to the official national portal and as early as 2017 according to Le Desk.¹⁹

The Moulouya flows into the sea at the western boundary of the municipality,²⁰ according to the Ramsar information sheet the largest permanent Mediterranean river of the Maghreb.²¹ The estuary, with its floodplain, a dune belt and an adjoining strip of sea, has been a Ramsar site of 2,340 hectares since 15 January 2005.²² The area is a stopover for migratory birds; the species listed include the marbled teal, Audouin’s gull and Moussier’s redstart.²³

Saïdia is the eastern end of the Mediterranean bypass road, which runs 550 kilometres along the coast from Tangier.²⁴ As part of the resort project, the road from Oujda to Saïdia was given a second carriageway.²⁵ The airports of Oujda and Nador are each about 60 kilometres from the marina.²⁶