Temara | |
Native Name Lang: | ar |
Pushpin Map: | Morocco#Africa |
Pushpin Relief: | 1 |
Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Morocco |
Coordinates: | 33.9267°N -6.9122°W |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Morocco |
Subdivision Type1: | Region |
Subdivision Type2: | Prefecture |
Subdivision Name1: | Rabat-Salé-Kénitra |
Subdivision Name2: | Skhirate-Témara |
Population Total: | 313510 |
Population Rank: | 12th in Morocco |
Population As Of: | 2014 |
Population Footnotes: | [1] |
Population Blank1 Title: | Ethnicities |
Timezone: | CET |
Utc Offset: | +1 |
Temara (Arabic: تمارة) is a coastal city in Morocco.[2] It is located in the region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, directly south of Rabat on the Atlantic coast, in the suburban area of the capital. The city with 313,510 inhabitants as of 2014[1] is the capital of Skhirate-Témara Prefecture. It is twinned with Saint Germain en Laye, France. The city has beaches and a small pleasure port.
Temara was founded in the twelfth century (1130–1163) by Sultan Othman El Arfaoui, who built a mosque there and named it Al Maha. Five centuries later, Mulai Ismail built the current wall and made from Temara a ribat (casern) around Said mosque. Later, Mulay Abd ar-Rahman (1822–1859) and Mulay Abdul Aziz (1894–1908), completed (Kasbah of the Udayas) as religious and military camps. Temara also has a small network of coastal caves, notably El Harhoura 2 cave and El Mnasra cave (formerly known as the Smugglers' Cave), which are archaeological sites dating back 120,000 years, from the Aterian age.[3]
Temara has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa). In winter there is more rainfall than in summer. The average annual temperature in Temara is 17.8°C. About 505mm of precipitation falls annually.
Temara is close to Morocco's two main cities, Rabat, the capital, and economic center Casablanca.
Two main zones share the essence of the industrial units in the city of Temara. The first is in the direction of Casablanca, and, with a total area of 120 hectares, extensible to 300 Ha work 55 industrial units in this zone, contains the more clean industry sectors (textiles, packaging, printing, food). The second industrial zone is at the other end of town, in the direction of Rabat. It is the industrial zone Attasnia, which, with a total of 20 hectares, contains 23 industrial units (such as textiles, electronics, chemicals).
The population was at first constituted by Zaer tribes and different tribes of Oudayas (Military groups from different regions of Morocco were established by the Sultan, as exchange of their Military service to the Sultan they had the right to cultivate the land). Now the population was diversified by all ethnicities in Morocco: Arabs and various Amazigh groups, Chleuhs and Hassanis).