Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business 
Kenitra is a city in northwestern Morocco on the south bank of the Sebou River, about 12 km from where it meets the Atlantic and some 35 km northeast of Rabat. One of the three main cities of the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region, it is a busy industrial center with more than half a million people.
The modern city was laid out by the French on the orders of Hubert Lyautey in 1912, next to a small kasbah built in the 1890s, and during the protectorate it was named Port-Lyautey. Its Arabic name means "little bridge". In November 1942 Allied troops landed at nearby Mehdya during Operation Torch, and the airfield later became a large American naval air station.
Most visitors come for the coast at Mehdya, where an old kasbah guards the river mouth above a long surf beach and the bird-rich lake of Sidi Boughaba. Beyond lie the cork oaks of the Mamora Forest, the Roman ruins of Thamusida and Banasa, and the lagoon of Moulay Bousselham.
The Kasbah of Mehdya is a fortress on the rocks above the mouth of the Sebou River, west of central Kenitra. Its walls go back to a Spanish fort of 1614, and after Moulay Ismail took it in 1681 he rebuilt it with a palace, a mosque and the grand gate of Bab al-Jadid, now standing in wild grass.
Mehdia Beach is a long stretch of fine sand on the Atlantic just south of the mouth of the Sebou, and a favorite beach for summer visitors from Kenitra. Its strong Atlantic swell makes it popular with surfers and bodyboarders, especially in winter, while families fill the sand in summer.
The Mehdia Breakwater is a long stone jetty at the mouth of the Sebou River, below the kasbah and beside the small fishing port of Mehdia. It guards the entrance to a river whose sandbar has long made it dangerous for ships, and walkers climb out over its rocks to watch the Atlantic waves break.
Sidi Boughaba Lake is a protected freshwater lake just south of Mehdia, about 13 km from central Kenitra and cut off from the ocean only by a high dune. A Ramsar wetland 5 to 6 km long, it has more than 170 bird species, including flamingos and marbled teal, and a nature education center.
The Kenitra Corniche is a promenade along the south bank of the Sebou River, which passes the city about 12 km before it meets the Atlantic at Mehdia. Paths, lawns and benches line the water, and it is a favorite place for an evening walk, when city lights reflect in the wide, slow river.
The Sebou River rises in the Middle Atlas and flows 496 km past Fez to the Atlantic at Mehdya, making it the second-largest river in North Africa by volume. Known to the Romans as the Sububus, it is navigable only as far as Kenitra, which was long home to the only river port in Morocco.
The Kenitra Municipal Stadium opened in 1916 and was the first football stadium built in Morocco. It is the home ground of KAC Kenitra, a club founded by local players in 1938 that went on to win the Moroccan league four times, and in recent years it has been undergoing a large-scale renovation.
The Mamora Forest stretches about 70 km inland from the coast between Rabat and Kenitra and is the largest cork oak forest in Morocco, perhaps in the world. It covered 130,000 hectares in the early 20th century but about 55,000 by 2003, and its sandy tracks wind past trees still stripped for cork.
Thamusida is an ancient river port on the left bank of the Sebou, north of Kenitra, first settled at the end of the 7th century BC. Under Rome it became both a town and a military camp in the province of Mauretania Tingitana, and its low stone ruins now lie in green fields beside the river.
Banasa is the site of Iulia Valentia Banasa, one of three Roman colonies that Augustus founded in Mauretania Tingitana for veterans of the battle of Actium. Its ruins on the Gharb plain include a forum, columns and four bathhouses, and many of its mosaics are now in Rabat's archaeology museum.
Moulay Bousselham is a small seaside town on the Atlantic north of Kenitra, named after a Sufi saint from Egypt whose shrine draws many pilgrims every summer. Since the 1960s the old fishing village has grown into a resort, with a long beach beside the narrow mouth of a large lagoon.
Merja Zerga is a tidal lagoon of 4,500 hectares beside Moulay Bousselham, about 70 km north of Kenitra, protected as a biological reserve since 1978. A Ramsar wetland on a key bird migration route, it has about 100 species, with tens of thousands of wintering ducks and waders and greater flamingos.
Been to Kenitra? Add your best shots to the gallery.
Log in to add photosPhoto: Jaro Varga, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Jaro Varga, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Younes MAHRACH, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Achraf abarhous, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Fati ouazzani, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Hakim Dahoune, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Soufiane Mouzoun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Starssurfer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Mohamed Marouane, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Ymax2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Wafaa Tajri, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Wafaa Tajri, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Erwann ANDRE, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Itachoo1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Mohamed Haddi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Frenchinmorocco, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: EL KHALIL EL ARFAOUI, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Soufiane Elhassani, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Hassan Taghzouti, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: AKA Abdel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: RACHID BAYA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Erwann ANDRE, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: KSKB1935, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Lucien Mahin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Lucien Mahin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: M.Rais, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Zinkh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
