In 1624, an intense earthquake wrecked Fez and killed hundreds of its inhabitants

On May 11, 1624, the city of Fez was almost completely destroyed by one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Morocco. An intense earthquake hit the city, wrecked most of its districts and killed thousands of people.

Juan de Prado, the Franciscan executed by a Moroccan sultan

In 1631, a Spanish Franciscan was executed by Saadi sultan Al Walid ben Zidan. The latter ordered that the priest be burned after he came to Morocco to preach and comfort Christian slaves.

Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi, the Morocco serial killer who escaped crucifixion

In 1906, Marrakech-based shoemaker Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi was arrested for killing 36 women, stealing their money and burying them under his shop and in his garden. After he escaped crucifixion, Mesfewi was tortured and walled up alive.

In times of droughts and famines, Moroccans ate pork, cats and human flesh

Throughout the last centuries, Moroccans adapted their eating habits to the harsh events they had to go through. During famines and droughts, they considered extreme food choices including cat meat, human flesh and venomous insects.

The oldest known doctor of medicine degree was awarded to a Moroccan in Fez

The oldest known doctor of medicine degree was granted in Fez to Moroccan student Abdellah Ben Saleh Al Koutami. The latter studied at the Univesity of al-Qarawiyyin and was the disciple of prestigious Muslim scientists, including Al Baytar and Annabati.

The Ra expeditions, when a Moroccan sailed from Safi to Barbados on a reed boat

In 1969 and 1970, the Ra expeditions were launched in Morocco by a Norwegian adventurer to prove that prehistoric civilizations from both sides of the ocean were in contact with each other. The second part of the expedition included a Moroccan man who sailed from Safi to Barbados.

The 16th century cough, a mysterious respiratory disease that ravaged Morocco

By the end of the 16th century, a mysterious respiratory disease that killed hundreds of people hit Morocco. The illness was called «K’hikiha», in reference to coughing that was one of its annoying and persistent symptoms.

Ahmed al-Mansur, the sixteenth century Moroccan sultan who died of the plague

He fled his beautiful palace in Marrakech and spent months in the countryside to avoid contagion. Saadi sultan Ahmed al-Mansur ended up dying of the plague despite the preventive measures he had taken.

Poisoned cooking oil, Morocco’s most tragic sanitary catastrophe

In 1959, Morocco witnessed one of the most tragic sanitary catastrophes, with hundreds of people suffering from a mystifying paralysis. The crisis was managed a year later when the source of the disabling disease was finally revealed.

Moroccans and their first experience of quarantine during an epidemic

On Friday, Morocco declared a state of heath emergency to deal with the spread of coronavirus. The decsion is not the first of its kind as in the 18th and 19th centuries, the plague forced the Kingdom to impose a nationwide quarantine.