Myths and Mistakes - Morocco that isn't!

One of the truly sad things about geography is that you can't just change it to suit yourself. However, when it comes to Morocco, it hasn't stopped a lot of otherwise intelligent people doing so. For example take the wonderful book by the reputable publishers Thames and Hudson, called The Flavours of Arabia. Now this is no cheap paperback but a high priced coffee-table delight. Except for one glaring mistake. The subtitle of the book is "cookery and food in the Middle East". Fine except the cover photograph shows a friend of ours standing in his shop in front of a photograph of the late King, Hassan II. Yes, in Morocco. Now last time I looked Morocco was not in the Middle East. Mind you that hasn't stopped historians, geographers and cookery books for lumping it in with the UAE and Lebanon.

Then there is the climate. Morocco is in Africa, right? And as everyone seems to think, it is always hot. Talking with the company who runs the biggest and best accommodation service for Fez ( fes riads ) they tell me that they often get requests for riads with swimming pools at Christmas time. Well, they are welcome to swim, but do watch out for hypothermia as temperatures can get below freezing for a couple of months around Christmas and it snows. Yes, snow in Morocco.

While we are banging on about myths - take the recent post on a little blog called Morocco Travel Information whose claim is: A Morocco travel guide with historical, cultural and geographical information about Morocco, including sightseeing suggestions and more. Fine, except that they posted this astonishing post: I'm in Agadir, Morocco at the moment. It's a small town on the Pacific about four hours south of Marrakech. On the Pacific, eh? Must be something to do with global warming....

If it wasn't so silly, you would have to laugh.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news