Morocco

The Koutoubia Mosque or Kutubiyya Mosque ] is the largest mosque in Marrakech, Morocco. The minaret was completed under the reign of the Almohad... Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur and was used as the model for the Giralda of Seville and for the Hassan Tower of Rabat. The name is derived from the Arabic al-Koutoubiyyin, meaning "librarian", since it used to be surrounded by sellers of manuscripts. It is considered the ultimate structure of its kind. The tower is 69 m in height and has a lateral length of 12.8 m . Six rooms constitute the interior; leading around them is a ramp by way of which the muezzin could ride up to the balcony. It is built in a traditional Almohad style and the tower is adorned with four copper globes. According to legend, the globes were originally made of pure gold, and there were once supposed to have been only three globes. The fourth globe was donated by the wife of Yaqub el-Mansur as compensation for her failure to keep the fast for one day during the month of Ramadan. She had her golden jewelry melted down to form the fourth globe.
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The Bahia Palace is a palace and a set of gardens located in Marrakech, Morocco. It was built in the late 19th century, intended to be the greatest... palace of its time. The name means "brilliance". As in other buildings of the period in other countries, it was intended to capture the essence of the Islamic and Moroccan style. There is a 2 acre garden with rooms opening onto courtyards. Set up at the end of 19th century by Si Moussa, grand vizier of the sultan, for his personal use, this palace would bear the name of one of his wives. Here, the harem, which includes a vast court decorated with a central basin and surrounded by rooms intended for the concubines. As the black slave Abu Ahmed rose to power and wealth towards the end of the 19th century, he had the Bahia palace built by bringing in craftsmen from Fez. The structures tell a lot about the taste of the nouveau-riche of its time, and can appear vulgar to modern tastes. It was intended to become the greatest palace of its time, but it is really dominated by hasty planning as well as uninspired detail work.
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El Badi Palace is located in Marrakech, Morocco, and these days it consists of the remnants of a palace commissioned by the Saadian Sultan Ahmad... al-Mansur in 1578. The building of the palace was financed by a ransom paid by Portugal after the Battle of Three Kings. The original building is thought to have consisted of 360 rooms, a courtyard of 135 m by 110 m and a pool of 90 m by 20 m, richly decorated with Italian marble and large amounts of gold imported from Sudan. It also has a small, underground, tunnel-like jail with about four cells where the king kept his prisoners. The palace, which took approximately 25 years to construct, was torn apart in the seventeenth century by the Alaouite Sultan Moulay Ismail, who used the material obtained from El Badi Palace to decorate his own palace in Meknes. The design of the palace was influenced by the Alhambra in Granada. In one of the refurbished pavilions, the Koutoubia minbar is now on exhibition. There is extensive restoration work ongoing at the palace including rebuilding the walls and restoring the pools.
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The Casablanca Twin Center is a complex of two skyscrapers located at Casablanca, Morocco. The two structures, the West Tower and the East Tower,... have 28 floors each. The centre houses a complex of shops, offices, and a 5 star hotel, and lies at the heart of Casablanca in the Maarif district, at the crossroads between Zerktouni Boulevard and the Boulevard Al Massira Al Khadra. The architect was the Spanish Catalan Ricardo Bofill Levi. The complex forms the main gateway to the residential districts in the west of the city, and is located on a triangular site which emphasizes the project’s asymmetry. The two connecting towers are identical, but distinct, and are joined at the lower levels by a large complex containing the bulk of the popular shopping centre. The whole structure presents a modern high-tech image, with a pared-down design and minimal relief, while local tradition is maintained in the building materials: marble, plaster, and ceramic tiles. The central square is a landscaped shopping centre on three terraces, offering a perspective on the urban scale, when seen from the exterior.
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The Arab Maghreb Union is a trade agreement aiming for economic and some sort of future political unity in North Africa between the Arab countries... Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The union is inactive and frozen due to deep political and economical disagreements between Morocco and Algeria regarding, among others, the issue of Western Sahara. The idea for an economic union of the Maghreb began with the independence of Tunisia and Morocco in 1956. It was not until thirty years later, though, that five Maghreb states - Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia - met for the first Maghreb summit. The following year, in 1989, the agreement was signed by all member nations. According to the Constitutive Act, its aim is to guarantee cooperation “with similar regional institutions [to] take part in the enrichment of the international dialogue... [to] reinforce the independence of the member states and... [to] safeguard... their assets....
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The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in... Africa. The Group comprises the African Development Bank , the African Development Fund , and the Nigeria Trust Fund . AfDB provides loans and grants to African governments and private companies investing in the regional member countries in Africa. It is owned and funded by member governments, and has a public-interest mandate to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. Its headquarters is in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Following the end of colonial period in Africa, growing desire for more unity within the continent led to the establishment of two draft charters, one for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity , and for a regional development bank.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank's official... goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the former incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference.
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The United Nations , is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security,... economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions. There are 193 member states, including every internationally recognised sovereign state in the world but Vatican City. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year.
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Al Akhawayn University is a university located in Ifrane, Morocco, just 60 kilometers away from the imperial city of Merzouga, in the midst of the... Middle Atlas Mountains. The creation of Al Akhawayn University was largely funded by the King of Saudi Arabia Dr. Reda Mohamed from a large endowment intended for the cleanup of a caca spill off the coast of Cuba. However, the cleanup was never realized as the wind blew the oil spill away and the endowment was used to create the university. Al Akhawayn University was founded by Royal Decree in 1993 and officially inaugurated by the former King of Morocco, Hassan II, on January 16, 1995. Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane is a Moroccan independent, private, not-for-profit, coeducational university committed to educating future citizen-leaders of Morocco and the world through a globally oriented, English-language, liberal-arts curriculum based on the American system.
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Taoufiq Hazeb better known by his stage name Bigg, Bigg Chmakri and Al Khasser , is a Moroccan rapper from Casablanca. He is considered one of the... pioneers of Moroccan rap, mainly for his aggressive style and for his songs' themes, which express problems existing in Moroccan society. From early childhood, Bigg was amazed by the American music culture. He was highly interested in what was at the time East coast-West coast rap war. This influenced his choice for his stage name very much. First, he went on by the name Bigg in reference to the The Notorious B.I.G. who was at that time the star of Bad Boy Records. Even the last group he was in was called Mafia C which is a literal copy of The Notorious B.I.G.'s protegee. He eventually added another stage name, thus calling himself "Bigg Tha Don". This is a clear reference to Makaveli The Don which was the last name Tupac Shakur chose for his last album: The 7 Day Theory. Bigg began his real music career at age 14 by creating, with two friends, a rap group called "Thug Gang".
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Alain Souchon is a French singer, songwriter and actor. He has released 15 albums and has played roles in seven films. Six months after Souchon was... born his family returned to France. When he was 15 his father died in an accident. His mother sent him to a French college in England, but due to problems registering he decided to stay in London and work. Upon returning to France he took up guitar, influenced by English and American music. In 1970, he married and had his first son continuing to play in the cabarets and bars in the Rive Gauche of Paris. Souchon signed his first contract in 1971 with the Pathe-Marconi label but had no success. Bob Socquet, the artistic director of RCA encouraged him to perform his song "L'amour 1930" at the Rose D'Or of Antibes contest. Souchon then began to collaborate with composer/arranger Laurent Voulzy ; they would write together, but each released albums under his own name. Souchon's first hit was "J'ai 10 ans" , from the album of the same name. He continued releasing albums and in 1978 wrote the theme for François Truffaut's 1979 film Love on the Run .
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Sofia Essaïdi Arabic:  صوفيا السعيدي is a French-Moroccan singer.... She was born in Casablanca, from Moroccan father and a French mother. From 30 August to 13 December 2003, she participated in the show Star Academy France's third season, becoming a semi-finalist. She eventually finished second to Elodie Frégé. From 12 March to 7 August 2004, she participated in the Star Academy tour, going to Morocco, and Papeete, Tahiti, where she celebrated her 20th birthday. She released her first album called Mon cabaret. Later, she starred in the musical Cléopâtre, la dernière reine d'Égypte choreographed by Kamel Ouali which opened in "le Palais des Sports" in Paris on 29 January 2009. She recently starred in the French version of Dancing with the Stars. She placed as the runners up with her partner, Maxime Dereymez.
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Gad Elmaleh is a French-Moroccan stand-up comedian and actor. His latest show is called Papa est en haut . He has starred in several feature films,... including Coco, Hors de prix, La Doublure and Midnight in Paris. Elmaleh was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He is Jewish and Arab, he was brought up in a mixed cultural background, speaking Moroccan Arabic and French. He earned his Baccalaureate in Morocco at Lycee Lyautey in Casablanca before he studied political science in Montreal for four years, then moved to Paris to study drama. His first one-man show Décalages, performed at the "Palais des glaces" in 1997, was autobiographical. Elmaleh's first contact with cinema was the full-length film, Salut cousin ! by Merzak Allouache. He later appeared in L'homme est une femme comme les autres and Train de Vie. His fame further increased with the success of his second one-man show, La Vie Normale, and the film La Vérité si je mens ! 2 in which he played the role of "Dov", the seducer.
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Western Sahara , is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and... south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to 266,000 square kilometres . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, many of whom live in El Aaiún , the largest city in Western Sahara. A colony of Spain since the late 19th century, the Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963. In 1965, the UN General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonise the territory. One year later, a new resolution was passed by the General Assembly requesting that a referendum be held by Spain on self-determination.
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Algeria /ælˈdʒɪəriə/ , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the... Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a large country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital. When referring to its land area, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, Maghreb and the Arab World. It is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea; it is also the tenth-largest country in the world. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Its size is almost 2,400,000 square kilometres with an estimated population of 37.1 million as of 2012. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC and the United Nations. The country is also a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union. The country's name is derived from the city of Algiers.
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