Doukkala

Doukkala (Arabic: دكالة‎, romanized: Dukkālah) is a natural region of Morocco made of fertile plains and forests. Nowadays it is part of the Casablanca-Settat administrative region.

This article is about the natural region. For the administrative region, see Doukkala-Abda.

Doukkala
Natural region
The "Green Mountain", the only visible hill, east of the region
Location of the Doukkala natural region in Morocco
CountryMorocco
A "tazota", typical old architecture only found in the region

It is a plain stretching from the Atlantic Ocean south of Oum Er-Rbia River up to some 50 km further southward and the same distance eastward.

The main urban centers are Sidi Smail, Sidi Bennour, Had Ouled Frej , Khemis Zemamra . Sidi Bennour is the fastest developing center of the four.

It is mainly an agricultural region, with few tourist attractions.

History

Historically, Doukkala referred to a Berber tribe which occupied the territory from Anfa (Casablanca) to Asfi. They revolted against Almohad kings in the 12th century. About 1160, the Almohad ruler Abd al-Mu'min settled Arab bedouin tribes there, a coalition of whom he had defeated earlier in Tunisia.[1]

At the end of the French protectorate (ca 1950), there lived in Doukkala 372,269 Muslims, 2,680 Europeans and 3,933 Jews. [2]

Geography

Doukkala is divided in three sub-regions, parallel to the seacoast.

  • The "Oulja" (Arabic: الولـجة), along the beach, with garden-crops.
  • The "Sahel" (Arabic: الساحل), some 20 km inside, a stony region, only suiting to sheep breeding.
  • The rich plain, with wheat, sugar beets, and intensive cattle breeding.

The only mountain to be seen is at the border with the plain of Rahamna called "Jbel Lakhdar" (Arabic: جبل لخضر) meaning "Green Mountain".

The plain is subject to flooding. A temporary natural lake between Sidi Bennour and Larbaa Ouled Amrane called "Ouarar" (Arabic: ورار) only fills in rainy years. Its largest surface was noted in 1916, 1966 and 2008.

Features of the Doukkala
  • Sugar beets cultivation at Sidi Smail
  • Sugar factory at Sidi Bennour
  • Center of a typical Doukkala village (Mwarid, Oulad Bou Hmam)
  • Warar, a natural temporary lake, in 2008, flooding a house built in the 1970s
  • "Sahel" sub-region, with "anticline climbing" road

References
  1. Guide bleu Hachette du Maroc, 1978 ed., p. 302.
  2. Guide bleu Hachette du Maroc, 7th ed., 1950, p. 178.

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