Marrakesh - Geography and Climate

Geography and Climate

By road, Marrakesh is located 580 kilometres (360 mi) southwest of Tangier, 327 kilometres (203 mi) southwest of the Moroccan capital of Rabat, 239 kilometres (149 mi) southwest of Casablanca, 196 kilometres (122 mi) southwest of Beni Mellal, 177 kilometres (110 mi) east of Essaouira, and 246 kilometres (153 mi) northeast of Agadir. The city has expanded northwards from the old centre with suburbs such as Daoudiate, Diour El Massakine, Yamama, Sidi Abbad, Sakar, and Malizia, southeastwards with Sidi Youssef Ben Ali, westwards with Massima, and Hay Annahda and Berradi to the far southwest beyond the airport.On the P2017 road leading south out of the city are large villages such as Douar Lahna, Touggana, Lagouassem, and Lahebichate, leading eventually through desert to the town of Tahnaout at the edge of the High Atlas, the highest mountainous barrier in North Africa. The Ourika River valley is located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Marrakesh. The "silvery valley of the Ourika river curving north towards Marrakesh", and the "red heights of Jebel Yagour still capped with snow" to the south are sights in this area. David Prescott Barrows, who describes Marrakesh as Morocco's "strangest city", describes the landscape, "The city lies some fifteen or twenty miles from the foot of the Atlas mountains, which here rise to their grandest proportions. The spectacle of the mountains is superb. Through the clear desert air the eye can follow the rugged contours of the range for great distances to the north and eastward. The winter snow mantle them with white, and the turquoise sky gives a setting for their grey rocks and gleaming caps that is of unrivaled beauty."

Beyond the 130,000 hectares of greenery and the 180,000 palm trees of its Palmeraie, Marrakesh is an oasis of great and rich plant variety. Throughout the seasons, orange, fig, pomegranate and olive trees spread their fragrances and display their color and luscious fruits in the gardens of the city such as Agdal Garden and Menara Garden. The precious gardens of the city conceal numerous native plants or other species that have been imported in the course of the centuries including giant bamboos, yuccas, papyrus, palm trees, banana trees, cypress, philodendrons, rosebushes, bougainvilleas, pines and various kinds of cactus plants.

Marrakesh features a semi-arid climate, with mild wet winters and hot dry summers. Average temperatures range from 12 degrees celsius in the winter to 28-29 degrees celsius in the summer. The relatively wet winter/dry summer precipitation pattern of Marrakesh mirrors precipitation patterns found in Mediterranean climates. However the city receives less rain than is typically found in a Mediterranean climate, hence the semi-arid climate classification. Between 1961 and 1990 the city averaged 256.4 mm (10.094 in) of rain annually. Barrows says of the climate, "The region of Marrakesh is frequently described as desert in character, but, to one familiar with the southwestern parts of the United States, the locality does not suggest the desert, but rather an area of seasonal rainfall, where moisture moves underground rather than by surface streams, and where low brush takes the place of the forests of more heavily watered regions. The location of Marrakesh on the north side of the Atlas, rather than the south, forbids its being described as a Saharan city, but it is the northern focus of the Saharan lines of communication, and its history, its types of dwellers, and its commerce and arts, are all related to the great south Atlas spaces which reach to Senegal and the Sudan."