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Oujda is the largest city of eastern Morocco and the capital of the Oriental region, lying on a plain just west of the border with Algeria. It was founded in 994 by the Zenata chief Ziri ibn Atiyya, and for centuries it changed hands between the rulers of Morocco and those of the lands to the east.
The walled medina keeps its old gates, souks and the Great Mosque founded by the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf in 1296, while the newer city around it has broad avenues and the green Lalla Aicha Park. Oujda is also known for its music, from the Andalusian gharnati tradition to modern rai, and for the pilgrimage oasis of Sidi Yahya on its edge.
The city is a good base for exploring the northeast. The limestone Beni Snassen Mountains hold the Zegzel Gorge, the Camel Cave and the prehistoric Taforalt Cave, and further north lie the long beach of Saidia, the wetlands of the Moulouya estuary and the fishing village of Ras el Ma.
The Medina of Oujda is the walled old town of Oujda, given new walls by the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf after he took the city in 1296. Its gates include Bab Sidi Abdelwahab on the east side, and its narrow lanes hold souks for food, spices, cloth and crafts around the Great Mosque.
Bab Sidi Abdelwahab is the best-known gate of the medina of Oujda, a pointed arch on its east side framed by two bastions. It was long called the Gate of Heads, because the authorities hung the cut-off heads of rebels above it, and a busy souk now spreads out beside it.
The Great Mosque of Oujda is the historic main Friday mosque of the medina of Oujda, founded in 1296 by the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf. Built in the hypostyle form of other Moroccan mosques, it has a well-proportioned minaret 24 metres high with decorated faces on its western side.
Sidi Yahya Oasis on the edge of Oujda grew up around the springs and the shrine of the holy man Sidi Yahya ben Younes, set among great palm trunks beside the well from which, legend says, he drew water before the springs rose. A moussem festival is held there every late summer.
Zegzel Gorge is a green valley cutting through the Beni Snassen Mountains north-west of Oujda, between cliffs of limestone and dolomite. The village of Taforalt and its famous prehistoric cave stand above the valley, and a stream runs through it past clear pools, small waterfalls and caves.
Camel Cave, known in French as the Grotte du Chameau, opens in the Beni Snassen Mountains beside the Zegzel Gorge, north-west of Oujda in the province of Berkane. Its mouth lies above clear green pools and a small waterfall, and paths lead visitors up to it from the road through the gorge.
Taforalt Cave, also called the Grotte des Pigeons, lies about 720 metres up in the Beni Snassen Mountains above the Zegzel valley, north-west of Oujda. Its oldest layers, some 85,000 to 82,000 years old, have yielded shell beads, and it holds what may be the oldest cemetery in North Africa.
The Beni Snassen Mountains rise between Oujda and the Mediterranean, named after the Zenata Berber tribe of the Ait Iznassen who live there. Built largely of limestone and dolomite, they hold hill villages, the Zegzel Gorge and the prehistoric cave of Taforalt, and their roads give wide views.
Lalla Aicha Park lies not far from the medina of Oujda and covers about 20 hectares of gardens. Created in 1935, it is a favourite place of rest for the people of Oujda, with shady lanes of tall cypresses and palms, wide lawns, fountains and arched gateways at its entrances.
Saidia Beach runs for 14 kilometres of fine sand beside the Algerian border, about 60 kilometres north of Oujda, in the town known as the Blue Pearl. Its resort, opened in 2009, has a marina of more than 300 berths, hotels and a golf course, and a gharnati music festival is held every summer.
The Moulouya Estuary is where the Moulouya River, rising in the Middle Atlas, empties into the Mediterranean near Saidia, north of Oujda, about 14 kilometres from the Algerian border. Set between the plains of Kebdana and Triffa, its sandbars, lagoons and reed beds draw many water birds.
Ras el Ma, also called Cap de l'Eau, is a fishing village on a coastal promontory of the Kebdana shore, north-west of Oujda, facing the Spanish-held Chafarinas Islands offshore. Small-scale fishing has long been its main living, and its harbour, white mosque and beaches draw visitors.
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