Tazekka National Park

About this place

Tazekka National Park is a protected area in Morocco's Middle Atlas, about 33 km in a straight line south-west of the city of Taza. It was created in 1950 on a small area to protect the grove of Atlas cedars isolated on the summit of Jbel Tazekka, 1,980 m high, and was extended in 1989 to nearly 120 square kilometres. Today the park includes forests of cork oak, holm oak and juniper, along with canyons, caves, waterfalls, rural villages and the Bab Louta lake, which reflects the surrounding hills. Clouds often gather over the summit, which receives about 1,800 mm of rain and snow a year. Wild boar, porcupines, otters, genets and African wolves live here, and the Barbary stag has been reintroduced after dying out. It is also an Important Bird Area, home to species such as the Barbary partridge and Levaillant's woodpecker. Near its northern edge lies the Friouato cave, up to 272 m deep, which visitors enter down a vertical shaft about 100 m deep fitted with steps. A scenic mountain road runs through the park from Taza, with viewpoints along the way. Spring and autumn are the finest seasons, and snow falls on the summit in winter.