Morocco has historically enjoyed a strategic location in the world. It is situated along the Strait of Gibraltar, on both Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, but with a rugged mountainous interior. As a result of its location on a crossroads of the world, Morocco has developed a rich culture: a mosaic of Arab, Berber, European and African influences.

It is an ancient land. Its original inhabitants, the Berbers, were already well established in North Africa when the Phoenicians made their first incursions in 1200 BC. It is a modern nation--a constitutional monarchy--with a booming economy and beginning to create a global economy. This presentation in GIS mapping format will focus on Morocco as a land of contrasts.

• Use Web-based GIS map layers to define the physical landscape and geography of Morocco.
• Use the physiographic map sequence to make connections between geographic and cultural transformations.
• Use the mapping exercises to understand the geography upon which the Berbers developed their hold on the land, how that same rugged land is used today to feed its people and yields enough to begin the process of joining the global economy. Donkeys pulling wagons and Berbers living in their isolated black tents are a common site in the rural areas. The teeming metropolis of Casablanca with its hundreds of thousands Mercedes Benzes, Volkswagen Passats and SUVs of all makes and burgeoning local markets reveal another side. Morocco must be seen as a land of contrasts.

• Reading the Overview.

• 5 minutes

• Viewing the PowerPoint© Presentation about using ArcIMS.

• 5 minutes

• Viewing the PowerPoint© Presentation:

• 30 minutes

• Completing the Exercise.

• 110 minutes

• Computer with a printer (for on-campus work) and Internet access (preferably equipped with Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 6.0 or higher, if you prefer Netscape make sure you have the 7.1 version - download ).
• Word processing software.

1. First, download and complete the Pre-Module Assessment Form (Word Document) and submit to your instructor.
2. View the PowerPoint© presentation which explains how to use the ArcIMS browser.
3. You will then use an ArcIMS browser to view a large number of layers of demographic, political, economic, and cultural phenomena.
4. Begin mapping exercises.
5. You will view a PowerPoint© presentation in the course of completing the map exercises: Enjoy.

You can click here to start the exercise.

Internet Resources:

http://www.afrol.com

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/mo.html (CIA World Factbook)

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/mexico.html (Perry-Castaneda Map Collection)

http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/profiles/mx.html (National Geographic)

Selected Reading List:

Abouzeid, Leila. The Year of the Elephant
Burckhardt, Titus. Fez; the City of Islam
Hart, David. Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco (2000)
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite (1991)
Montagne, Robert. The Berbers: Their Social and Political Organization (1973)
Ossman, Susan. Picturing Casablanca, Portraits of Power in a Modern City (1994)
Sadiqi, Fatima. Women, Gender and Language in Morocco (2003)
Swearingen, Will D. Moroccan Mirages, Agrarian Dreams and Deceptions, 1912-1986 (1987)
White, Gregory. A Comparative Political Economy of Tunisia and Morocco-On the Outside of Europe Looking in (2001)
Zoubir, Yadia (ed.). North Africa in Transition; State, Society and Economic Transformation in the 1990s (1999)