Monday, March 5, 2007

galerie photo














Sahara Marocain

birth of SAR the princess Lalla Khadija


The happy news of the birth of Its Royal Highness the princess Lalla Khadija was accomodated by the Moroccan people in an environment of joy and joy. It is the kind of occasion which makes it possible to highlight the symbiosis and the solidity of the bonds between the glorious throne alaouite and the Moroccan, proud people of his monarchy anchored in its History and its heart. Associated the celebration of the happy event, the various components of the Moroccan people make a point of reiterating thus, once again and in a spontaneous dash, their indéfectible attachment with Moroccan monarchy, guarantor of the unit, perenniality and stability of the Kingdom. Girded divine blessing, this happy birth offers the occasion to the people Moroccan to renew his allegiance with the glorious throne alaouite, conscious that monarchy in Morocco results from the people, with the listening of the people and only devoted to the service of the people. Whatever the words which one can use, they will not be able to translate the immense joy and to only describe the popular environment of jubilation saw a whole country who did not cease, since the happy news of the blessed birth of SAR the princess Lalla Khadija, to vibrate at the rate/rhythm of the historical event. The birth of SAR the princess Lalla Khadija causes a larger attachment with monarchy and its spiritual bases which take as a starting point the the traditions of the Prophet and of the Caliphs which, in their daily behaviors, always took care to be magnanimes and to extend their leniency to deserving, to needy and weakest. It is there the secrecy which makes the force of the Kingdom of Morocco which, since the advent of Ahl Al-Bayt, car its historical and ancestral legitimacy of the precepts of the good governorship inspired by the Holy Religion, as well on the level moral, political, social as religious. It is also the source of the actions bienfaitrices which marked the prosperous reign of fire Mohammed VI, in particular in the fields of the consolidation of the structures and sat democracy, introduction and the widening of the culture of solidarity and creation and equitable distribution of the richnesses of the country. Today, the Morrocans, who share with their Sovereign the immense joy of accomodating SAR the princess Lalla Khadija, are trustful that Its Majesty the King will be able to inculcate to him and to transmit to him education, the knowledge and the wisdom received of Fire Hassan II and her glorious ancestors.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

By granting autonomy to the provinces of the Sahara, the Sovereign made the History







When S.M. King Mohammed VI revealed, last spring, its new political project for the Sahara, the objective was as ambitious as clearly. It was a question of finding a solution final with a problem which has weighed for thirty years on the whole of the Maghreb. The Sovereign thus proposed with the provinces South to profit from an autonomy widened within the framework of national sovereignty. This regionalization will make it possible Sahraouis democratically to manage themselves their local businesses. It is guaranteed by the Constitution and is placed under the protection of the courses constitutional. The various constitutional revisions testify to the will to ensure a complementarity between the local democracy and the democracy such as it is applied to the national scale. Decentralization thus takes all its significance as a mode of decision and form of expression of the capacity. This vision had already been expressed in the historical speech of regretted Souverain fire S.M. Hassan II, when in October 1984, it had preached in Fès the German federal model which is decentralized with the profit of the “Lands”. The autonomy whose the provinces will profit from the south constitutes a democratic projection insofar as the citizens are in load of their own local, provincial and regional businesses. It will make it possible to continue, with even more effectiveness, the development of the Moroccan Sahara. Since their recovery in 1975, the provinces of the South indeed experienced a constant development. This tendency was still accentuated with the entry into force of the INDH which, for calendar 206-2010, planned a whole series of large building sites specific to the Moroccan Sahara. To return in Laâyoune for the first time for thirty years, it has been to fall from the moon. The city is unrecognizable. Small village deadened at the beginning of Spanish colonialism, it became a city electrified by the dynamism of its population. The tireless efforts, authorized by the Kingdom for the prosperity of the provinces of the South Kingdom, made this city, opened on the Atlantic, a true economic and social development pole. The prosperity of the Moroccan Sahara once ensured in an irreversible way, the granting of autonomy became realizable. It is what S.M. King Mohammed VI personally offered on her subjects of the Moroccan Sahara when, in a marked speech last on March 24 with Laâyoune, it proposed with wire provinces South “to urge a serene and thorough reflexion to see how they conceive the project of autonomy within the framework of the sovereignty of the Kingdom, of her national unit and her territorial integrity”. The large building sites launched in the most moved back zones of the Saharan provinces reflect the will of Morocco all to implement to ensure the good being and the peace of our compatriots sahraouis who suffered so a long time from the colonial domination. It is the State which has, of course, taken up the challenge, while building, in the middle of sands and under the most difficult conditions, all the infrastructures necessary to economic takeoff: roads, ports, airports, schools, hospitals and whole cities. The example of Boujdour is particularly striking. The city, become place chief of a structured area where 45.000 inhabitants live, grew around a port created of all parts. Emerging from the desert, Boujdour has, running on the coast, a superb cornice which constitutes strategic concerning future tourist investments. A plan of installation envisaged, in edge of beach, a hotel zone, second homes, restaurants and residential buildings. Boujdour was in the beginning a village of fishermen tightened around his headlight. Built by the Portuguese at the 18th century, it announces the city several away kilometers. Mohamed Fadel, one of the residents having profited from the project of allotment Al Wahda 2 is enough old not to have kept any nostalgia of a past retrospectively quite poor. “Laâyoune and Boujdour, say it, were only of small cores at the time of their recovery in 1975 thanks to glorious Green Marche” Mohammed Fadel underlines: “While calling upon national solidarity, the Moroccan State mobilized exceptional means to hoist the provinces of the South on the same level as the other areas of the Kingdom” The prosperity of the vastnesses of the Moroccan Sahara definitively ensured, it became possible to pass at the next stage. That of autonomy that, at the time of a historical visit with Laâyoune, S.M. King Mohammed VI personally came to offer to wire provinces south. While preserving the assets of the reunification, it is a question of organizing a policy of regionalization which will make it possible Sahraouis to manage themselves the local businesses. According to Abdellah Hafidi Sbaî, researcher, specialist in the Saharan questions and president of the world Alliance of notable of Blessed Sbaâ, “this widened regionalization is guaranteed by the Constitution. New geographical cutting will have to put a term at the preceding administrative system which divided are Saharan provinces in three entities, namely the area of Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia Al Hamra, the area of Eddahab-Lagouira Wadi and the Guelmim-Es Smara area. All these areas must be gathered in only one. They will then have autonomy for the decision-making, in particular in the financial field”. Thanks to the Royal initiative, the new building sites which were launched to the South should complete to transform the aspect of this area. It is indeed an envelope of some 2,6 billion dirhams which was allocated with these projects. They relate to a broad range of sectors: urban levelling, port, eradication of the unhealthy habitat, villages of fishing, roads, trade of proximity, craft industry… For better taking part in this socio-economic development, a collective of citizens was constituted to parallel to support the co-operative vocation the official institutions. In the area of Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia Al Hamra, it there A 24 co-operatives which operate in agriculture and the breeding. A dozen others exert in the craft industry. Gathering the craftsmen of this sector within a framework suitable to offer the best working conditions to them, they allow overall activities: embroidery, tapestry, jewellery, joinery or the tannery. As for the co-operative of Tarfaya, it is cavity specialized in fishing. For certain ends experts, the butter of the co-operative Halib Sakia Al Hamra de Laâyoune would be the best of Morocco. Useless to seek it beyond Tarfaya: the production of the small cooperative dairy is hardly enough to cover half of the needs for the area. But its 22 members, who exploit a very small irrigated perimeter of 210 ha, downstream from Laâyoune, are very satisfied with their standard of living.
Morocco recommends a broad autonomy within the framework of the sovereignty of the kingdom alaouite to solve the conflict of the Western Sahara, an old Spanish colony under control of Reduction since 1975. The Polisario Face, with the support of Algeria, asserts the independence of the territory by the means of a referendum of self-determination. “Morocco is releasing a consensual position on the autonomy of the provinces of the south, within the framework of the process of democratization of the national institutions”, declared the minister at the time of a meeting with the press with Laâyoune (capital of the Western Sahara) where king Mohammed VI has paid for Monday a five days visit. The autonomy of these provinces is “the maximum approach that Morocco can accept”, made a point of specifying Mr. Benabdallah, who stressed that this choice is “the only credible one”. “There is no other option which can bring quietude for the population of the area”, he affirmed, noting that this step constitutes “the only practicable option which can leave us the dead end”. An approach which associates the populations of the south It, in addition, specified that Morocco could develop an approach which can associate all “wire of Morocco, of which those which are in the camps of Tindouf”, in the west of Algeria. Mr. Benabdallah evoked the consultations in progress in Morocco about the autonomy of the provinces of the south the following which the Moroccan proposal will be submitted to the United Nations. The minister, moreover, considered to be “natural” that the populations of the provinces of the south are associated these consultations. “It is completely natural that this process takes account of the points of view of the populations of the provinces of the south, the political parties and all the components of the company”, he insisted, depending that “there is, within the populations of the south, a firm will to take part in these consultations”.

Historical and legal bases of the marocanity of the Sahara



If the topicality poses the problem of the Western Sahara (Moroccan) under the angle of the self-determination of the populations, this should not make forget the unmemorable membership of this territory in Morocco, nor the legitimate character of its rehabilitation to the Motherland since 1975. Morocco, proposes with perseverance the organization of a referendum of self-determination of the populations sahraouies. This position must be apprehended under the angle of the attachment, ever contradicted, of Morocco to the principles governing the friendly relations between the States, of which the maintenance of peaces and safety international and the réglement peaceful one of the disagreements. This document has the aim of briefly pointing out the various titles which melt the marocanity of the Sahara. The symbiosis which characterizes the relations between the Saharan provinces and the remainder of Morocco, the adhesion of the populations to the Monarchy and the Institutions of the Country, the extraordinary achievements achieved since 1975 out of economic and social matter, attest membership of the Sahara in Morocco.
1- Historical and legal bases of the marocanity of the Sahara
The historical bases of the marocanity of the Western Sahara, rest on very many acts, as well at the internal level at the international level.
1° - At the internal level: It is necessary, au préalable, to point out a major fact: Morocco is made up as a State since IXème century. This quality of authentic State is single in the Maghreb. It had been safeguarded even during the bracket of Protectorate (1912-1956). In the structure of operation of this secular Moroccan State, the Sahara always occupied a privileged, and often determining place. Thus, the founders of the dynasties in Morocco came often directly from the one of the tribes of the Sahara Occidental. It is in particular, the case of Almoravides whose founder, Youssef Ben Tachfine (XIème century), was to constitute “Large Morocco” which extended to the borders from Senegal. These close links with the Sahara are not contradicted with the advent with the capacity of the Dynasty Alaouite (XVII ème century), originating in Tafilalet (the Sahara), and which hardly ceased consolidating the national unit and to reinforce the unmemorable bonds between all the areas of Morocco. The exercise of sovereignty by the Moroccan State during its history is characterized by a certain number of specificities due to the particular structure of this State. This characteristic was recognized by the International Court of Justice (C.I.J) (Advisory opinion of the 16/10/75 on the Sahara Occidental § 94, pp. 43-44). The central capacity is exerted by the Sultan “Commander of Believing”. For this reason, he is Religious Chef of the community of believing of which he ensures at the same time the temporal government. The acceptance of the person of the Sultan by the community of believing is carried out by the “Beyâ” or allegiance. The act of allegiance engages those which carry out it with a final and perpetual obedience since the Sultan remains faithful to the precepts of Coran; obedience which, translated into intertemporal terms, proceeds of the traditional reports/ratios binding a State to its nationals. The Sultan, representative of authority supreme on the spiritual and political level, has, inter alia, the load of the defense of the populations and ensures the relationships to the foreign powers. Consequently, the act of allegiance is synonymous with sovereignty. It is besides what judge AMMOUN confirms, in its opinion on the opinion of the C.I.J relating to the Sahara: “… Also allegiance with the Sultan, or Sovereign, was equivalent it to the allegiance in the State. And it is consequently to recognize that the legal bonds of Morocco with the Sahara Occidental recognized by the Court result in political bonds, even bonds of sovereignty” With regard to the Sahara, the exercise of this sovereignty appears on several levels, relating to as well the appointment of local persons in charge (military gouver neurs, judges and chiefs) that the definition of the mission which was assigned to them. During the examination of the business of the Western Sahara by the C.I.J, Morocco presented several tens of texts and documents at internal character which testify to a exercise effective, permanent, continuous and peaceful of sovereignty by the Sultan on the Saharan territories. To take only the colonial occupation, one can retain a certain number of examples relating to the appointment of local persons in charge by the central capacity. Moreover, of the directives were given to these persons in charge to safeguard the territorial integrity of Morocco. In this respect, one must point out the privileged place which occupied the sheik My El Aïnin (as of the end of the XIXème century) in resistance vis-a-vis the foreign incursions in the Sahara Occidental. He was the special representative of the Sultan of which he carried out the policy on the local level. The capacity central, anxious to harden its authority on the southernmost provinces, was to even intervene on the spot in the person of the Sultan him. Thus, to quote only the period preceding protectorate, Hassan 1st had carried out in 1882 and 1886 two forwardings in order to put an end to the foreign aimings on this territory and to install officially different caïds and cadis. In addition, among the demonstrations of exercise of sovereignty, one can raise perception of taxes.
2° - At the international level: Moroccan sovereignty on the Sahara Occidental was devoted by provisions expresses of multiple conventions passed by the Empire Of the sherifs with foreign States. The analysis of certain diplomatic conventions shows that the foreign powers had recourse permanently to the Sultan to protect the activities from their nationals in the Sahara Occidental. They are treaties concluded respectively with Spain in 1861, with the United States of America in 1786 and 1836, and with the United Kingdom in 1856. Other instruments expressly recognize the sovereignty of Morocco on the Sahara. It is, in particular, the case of the treaty anglo-Morrocan of March 13, 1895 whose article 1st laid out that: “… No Power will be able to emit claims on the territories going of the Draâ Wadi in the Cape Bojador and called Tarfaya as it is known as higher and inside because these territories belong to Morocco”. In addition, the sovereignty of Morocco on Rio de Oro was recognized at the international level as the letter testifies some to the Ambassador from France in Tangier, dated November 10, 1898. According to this correspondence: “The Spanish press carries out great noise around recently received news of Rio de Oro and according to which a considerable number of Morrocans - four or five thousand would approach with an aggressive attitude of the aforesaid the factorie”. The C.I.J had to know of all these documents and it did not fail to retain that “the elements and information made available of the Court show the existence, at the time of Spanish colonization, of legal bonds of allegiance between the Sultan of Morocco and certain tribes living on the territories of the Sahara Occidental” (§ 162 of the opinion of 1975). These historical bases make it possible to better apprehend the legal bases on which the finishing of the territorial integrity occurred in 1975 rests.
II - LEGAL BASES OF THE FINISHING OF THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY
It is by the Joint Declaration of April 7, 1956 that Spain was to put an end to its presence in the Northern part of the Kingdom of Morocco. This declaration men tionne in particular, in its paragraph 2, that Spain “reaffirms its will to respect the territorial unit of the Empire which guarantee the international treaties. In fact, Spanish colonization was to continue in several parts of the Moroccan territory which will be reassigned only by stages: Tarfaya (1958), Ifni (1969) and the Western Sahara (1975). Chair North (Sebta and Mellilia) are always the object of the territorial dispute maroco-Spanish. Being the Sahara, the Moroccan request for retrocession was permanent, since 1956. Among the manifestations of the will of Morocco to recover his provinces of the South as of the shortly after his independence, one will retain the historical speech made by Feu His Majesty MOHAMED V with Me hamid El Ghizlane in 1958. Addressing itself to the Morrocans of the Sahara, He had pointed out the perpetual allegiance to them which their Ancestors had presented at Moulay Hassan 1st and a permanent and total mobilization of Morocco had promised to them, until the rehabilitation of all Sahara. In the same direction, and as of its establishment, Its Majesty HASSAN II had reiterated this position. Thus, at the time of the first summit conference of Non-aligned (Belgrade, September 1961). It had declared: “… This attack with the territorial integrity of countries independent and members of the United Nations creates a climate of irritation and provocation and constitutes on behalf of the countries colonialists a permanent threat for safety and peace. In Morocco, for example, Spain continues to occupy of the whole areas in the South of our territory: Saquia El Hamra, Ifni and Rio de Oro…”. At the time of its adhesion to the Charter of the OAU, in 1963 Morocco reaffirmed its position by expressing reservations in the following terms: being the realization of the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Morocco within the framework of its authentic borders, it is important that one knows that this signature of the Charter of the OAU, could not at all be interpreted like an explicit or implicit recognition accomplished facts up to now, refused like such by Morocco, nor like a renunciation of the continuation of the realization of our rights by the legitimate means at our disposal”. In this business, in accordance with its practice, Morocco always sought to lead to a peaceful payment of the disagreement while requiring of Spain to engage of the adapted negotiations, and by seizing the various International Organizations of this file. Answering this call, the General meeting of the United Nations, in her Resolution 2072 (XX) of December 16, 1965, was to ask Spain as an administering power “to immediately take measurements necessary for the release of the colonial domination of the territories of Ifni and the Sahara Occidental and to engage for this purpose of the negotiations on the problems relating to the sovereignty which these two territories pose”. It is necessary to raise here the fact for the General meeting of binding the two questions concerning the territorial integrity of Morocco. The delaying tacticses of Spain were going to lead the General meeting of the United Nations, at the instigation of Morocco, to require an advisory opinion of the C.I.J (resolution 3292 (XXIX) of the 13/12/1974) on the legal situation of the territory the day before Spanish colonization, and in particular its legal bonds with Morocco and Mauritania.
The questions were as follows: 1° - were the Sahara Occidental (Rio de Oro and Saquia El Hamra), at the moment of colonization by Spain, a territory without Master (Terra Nullius)? If the answer to the first question is negative, 2° - Which were the legal bonds of this territory with the Kingdom of Morocco and the Mauritanian unit? Answering by the negative one the first question, the C.I.J recognized, like it was already mentioned, of the bonds of allegiance between the Sultan of Morocco and the tribes of the Sahara Occidental. That attested accuracy of the Moroccan legal theses and made necessary the opening of negotiations with Spain to put a term at the colonial situation of this territory. It is in this direction that the Security Council was going to recall, by its Resolution 377 of October 22, 1975, that the “parts concerned and interested” could engage of the negotiations to settle this disagreement peacefully, on the basis of article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations. In fact, the parts concerned are Morocco, Mauritania and Spain; the interested part being Algeria in its quality of country bordering. It is necessary to raise the fact that the “Polisario” was ignored as well in the resolutions of the O.N.U., that in the official declarations of the Algerian authorities. In fact, Algeria stated not to have any direct claim on the Sahara Occidental. Much more, President Boumedienne made it clear that it encouraged and approved the division of the territory between Morocco and Mauritania. Indeed, in October 1974, at the time of the Summit of the league of the Arab States, it had declared in front of the Heads of State that: “The problem henceforth interests Mauritania and Morocco. I say that I agree and that there is no problem… Many meetings took place in Nouadhibou, Rabat and Agadir right after the Algéro-Morrocan agreement… I assisted with a meeting with His Majesty the King and the President Mauritanian during whom they were appropriate to find a formula to solve this problem after the release, formulates which envisages the share which returns to Mauritania and the share which returns to Morocco. I was thus present and I gave my downstream of any heart and without ulterior motive…” (Files of the League of the Arab States; to see in this direction, the “World” of April 9, 1980). However, I' Spain was going to maintain its policy colonial leading Morocco to start “Green Walk”, this one was going to open the way with the agreement of Madrid signed by Spain, Morocco and Mauritania, laying down the methods of retrocession of this territory (see appendix n° 7; Agreement of Madrid of November 14, 1975). One must underline here that this agreement is in total conformity with the rules of the International law and the charter of the United Nations (see article 5 of the agreement). The General meeting did not fail to recognize the validity of this treaty since it “takes note of the tripartite agreement occurred in Madrid between the governments Spanish, Moroccan and Mauritanian, whose text was forwarded to the Secretary General of the O.N.U. on November 18, 1975” (resolution 3458 (XXX) E3. from the 10/12/1975). The entirety of the provisions of the agreement of Madrid were scrupulously respected by Morocco, in particular those related with the expression of the will of the populations (article 3 of the agreement of Madrid). Indeed, Jemaâ (Parliament), body of which the representativeness and the competence in control of the businesses of the populations, had been recognized by the Mission of visit of the United Nations on the spot in 1975 (NAKED, DOC. 1/10023/Add.5, pp. 40 and ss), had approved the tuner of Madrid. This mode of consultation of the populations is in conformity with the international law and the international practice as regards decolonization. Consequently, self-determination can cover, according to the rules of the international law, several forms. This was very largely underlined at the time of the examination by the C.I.J of the business of the Sahara. So the retrocession of the Sahara by Spain in Morocco is in conformity with the titles historical and legal and satisfy international legality by its respect with the resolutions of the United Nations, the Agreement of Madrid and the wishes of the populations. More especially as the rehabilitation of the Sahara to the Motherland impelled a development without precedent of this part of the Kingdom.

the city is crossed by famous Rallye of Paris-Dakar




The Dakar rally (or “Dakar”, in the past Paris-Dakar rally) is a professional rally-raid, which disputes each year in January, mainly on the African continent. This rally is currently helped financially by Total and is organized by A.S.O. (the organization of perforator).

Sheikh Ma el Ainin



The city of Smara was founded at the end of the XIX century by the Sheikh Ma el Ainin who became the religious leader of the region. During its glory days there were more than 3000 tents grouped around the Alcazaba which central building housed a library of hundreds of books

“Michel Vieuchange, in 1930, disguised as a woman, died to have wanted to take a photograph of the ruined walls of Smara.”


the photographs are of Michel Vieuchange
I saw your two kasbas and your mosque in ruins. I saw you very whole posed on your base, vis-a-vis the desert, deserted, in silence, under the burning sun. I saw your desiccated palm trees now with half. You are well the work of a man, of My el Aïnin at the top of his power… As if he had wanted to astonish the nomads as by a miraculous thing, he establishes you on a pedestal vis-a-vis the setting one, cash on that to give them an idea of your size: he only in stones, extremely between the walls of solid apparatus of your kasbas, known prone around under the fabric of the guitounes. It gave a mosque to these men who wandering in the Sahara had so far requested only in the wind of the morning and the evening, being prosternant randomly of their road, on the rock or sand. And these men not having never seen a city had to see to brick up with amazement these walls, these kasbas, these cupolas "


smara In homage to Michel Vieuchange


“This night, I remained a long time before deadening me. Thought much of Smara particularly. That appeared essential to me to succeed. I feel ready with all…” Smara, town of our illusions… “We walk towards you like kidnappers. /We also walk towards you like the penitent ones. /And we will say to the friend or that who will challenge us on the way: I do not know you. /We walk towards what until the edges/Remplira the paddle,/Which will return it if purified. /All the sources then will be beautiful. /And it will be allowed to us to drink. /And the noise of the open sources will germinate in silence. /The flesh, the sick hearts, will find the suave day. /We will leave armed/As those which do not fear the contempt nor the smile/Towards the places where fight the man, for the achievement with our task” Michel Vieuchange

Discover this splendid city in the south of Morocco


To 240 km in the east of Laâyoune. Historical, cultural city and chocolate éclair of the Sahara, city of the setting sun Smara were built by the Sheik My el-Aïnine.
Capital of province, Smara is a stage on the Trans-Saharan road axis. Zaouïa, a Kasbah and bored ramparts of five monumental doors.
Except that, few vestiges remain of the old set up city more than one century ago. Smara covers several artistic, tourist and artisanal landscapes such as:
- Zaouia de Sidi Ahmed Rguibi
- Zaouia of Sheik Maalainine
- Zaouia de Sidi Ahmed Laaroussi
- Zaouia de Lhaj Hmer Lahya
- Zaouia de Sidi Ahmed Oumoussa -
Rupestral Engravings: Aassli and Miran
- Wadi Saguia El Hamra
- Sand dunes
- Rupestral Engravings
- Cultural Festival and tourist D Es-SEMARA
Fauna diversified: characterized by a predominance of mammals with hairs (Hares, Foxes of sand, Dorcas Gazelle and fermented, Hyène and the moufflon with cuffs) and a good presence of birds, as well sedentary as migrating (the Bustard, the Partridge and the turtle-dove).
Flora: Among the important existing natural vegetable species, one can quote inter alia:
- Acacia raddiana
- Tamarix aphylla
- Calotropis will procera
- Mercurea crassifolea
- Launea arborescens - Salsola
Discover this splendid city in the south of Morocco

Gravures rupestres : Aassli et Miran










Gravures rupestres : Aassli et Miran

gravures rupestres à smara


A 240 km à l'est de Laâyoune. Ville historique, culturelle et religieuse du Sahara, ville du soleil couchant Smara fut construite par le Cheikh Ma el-Aïnine. Capitale de province, Smara est une étape sur l'axe routier transsaharien. Une Zaouïa, une Kasbah et des remparts percés de cinq portes monumentales. Hormis cela, peu de vestiges subsistent de la vieille ville érigée il y a plus d'un siècle.

Smara couvre plusieurs paysages artistiques, touristiques et artisanaux tels que :

- Zaouia de Sidi Ahmed Rguibi

- Zaouia de Cheikh Maalainine

- Zaouia de Sidi Ahmed Laaroussi

- Zaouia de Lhaj Hmer Lahya

- Zaouia de Sidi Ahmed Oumoussa

- Gravures rupestres : Aassli et Miran

- Oued Saguia El Hamra

- Les dunes de sable

- Gravures rupestres

- Festival culturel et touristique d Es-SEMARA

Faune diversifié : caractérisée par une dominance de mammifères à poils (Lièvres, Renards de sable, Gazelle Dorcas et cuviez, Hyène et le mouflon à manchettes) et une bonne présence d’oiseaux, aussi bien sédentaires que migrateurs (l’Outarde, le Perdrix et la tourterelle).

Flore :

Parmi les importantes espèces végétales naturelles existantes, on peut citer entre autres :

- Acacia raddiana

- Tamarix aphylla

- Calotropis procera

- Mercurea crassifolea

- Launea arborescens

- Salsola

Découvrez cette magnifique ville au sud du Maroc