El Ouatia
| El Ouatia الوطية ⵍⵡⵟⵢⴰ |
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| Basic data | |||||
| State : |
 Morocco
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| Region : | Guelmim-Oued Noun | ||||
| Province : | Tan-Tan | ||||
| Coordinates | 28 ° 30 ′ N , 11 ° 20 ′ W | ||||
| Residents : | 9,295 (2014) | ||||
| Area : | 19.9 km² | ||||
| Population density : | 467 inhabitants per km² | ||||
| Height : | 25 m | ||||
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El Ouatia ( Tamazight : ⵍⵡⵟⵢⴰ , Arabic الوطية) Is an approximately 10,000 residents, the city on the Atlantic Ocean in the province of Tan-Tan in the region Guelmim-Oued Noun in southwest Morocco . The place is often referred to as the Tan-Tan-Plage .
Location and climate
El Ouatia is located on the Atlantic coast about 25 km (driving distance) west of the provincial capital Tan-Tan at an altitude of about 25 m . The N1 trunk road runs through the village and runs along the coast in a north-south direction. It is about 358 km to the northeast to Agadir ; Tarfaya is about 192 km southwest. The climate is desert-like; the extremely sparse rain (approx. 95 mm / year) falls almost exclusively in the winter half-year.
population
| year | 1994 | 2004 | 2014 |
| Residents | 7,846 | 6,407 | 9,295 |
The population of the former fishing village has increased significantly since the beginning of Morocco's independence (1956) due to the immigration of Berber families .
economy
Fisheries are only practiced on a small scale; instead, bathing and surfing tourism has established itself.
history
The place was an outpost of the Spanish military in the Spanish colonial times and was only handed over to Morocco in 1958.
Surroundings
In the village of Akhfenir , about 90 km southwest , about halfway between Tan-Tan and Tarfaya , there is the Khenifiss National Park , which was formed in 2006 from nature reserves established earlier and whose lagoon is mainly used as a breeding ground for water birds.