Tata (Morocco)
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| Basic data | |||||
| State : |
 Morocco
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| Region : | Souss-Massa | ||||
| Province : | Tata | ||||
| Coordinates | 29 ° 45 ′ N , 7 ° 58 ′ W | ||||
| Residents : | 18,611 (2014) | ||||
| Area : | 15.1 km² | ||||
| Population density : | 1,233 inhabitants per km² | ||||
| Height : | 690 m | ||||
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Tata ( Arabic طاطا, Taschelhit ⵟⴰⵟⴰ ) is an oasis town with about 20,000 inhabitants (mostly Berbers ) in the province of Tata ( Souss-Massa region ) in the south of Morocco .
location
Tata is located south of the Anti-Atlas at an altitude of only about 690 m on the edge of a fertile oasis valley. Important road connections are the N 12, which - coming from Guelmim in the west - leads to Foum Zguid , and the R 109, which starts a few kilometers east of Taroudannt and crosses the entire Anti-Atlas from north to south. The climate is desert-like; Rain (approx. 170 mm / year) only falls - if at all - in the winter months.
population
| year | 1994 | 2004 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 12,549 | 15,239 | 18,611 |
The city's population consists almost exclusively of members of various Berber tribes from the area. Most of them have increasingly moved to the cities since the 1970s because of the lack of rain in their home villages, but also for socio-cultural reasons (hope for work, improvement in material living conditions and health care, better opportunities for children's education, etc.).
economy
As the capital of the province of the same name, Tata is an important administrative center in the extreme south of Morocco. Not far from the border with Algeria - which is never clearly defined and therefore controversial for long stretches - the area around Tata is an important military base with an air force base about 20 kilometers to the west, but whose runway is also used by civilians. In recent years the city has also become more and more popular with tourists who are traveling with their own mobile homes.
Oases
Since Tata has no culturally and historically significant sights and the entire place has been largely redesigned, it is the north, i. H. in the direction of the larger village of Agadir Lehne , approx. 3 km away , spreading oases that are worth a short excursion. The sight of the lush green of the irrigated cultivation areas (barley, beans, vegetables) in the months of January to March makes you forget the extremely dry and hot, almost desert-like climate in the rest of the year.
Petroglyphs
In the wider area of Tata there are rock carvings (see web link) with many depictions of animals, including elephants, rhinos and ostriches, which must have once lived in this region and were probably hunted by the creators of the pictures. Some abstract motifs (circles) can also be found. The age of the petroglyphs is still largely unclear - it is estimated to be between 5000 and 20,000 years. Without a local guide, however, the rock carvings are hard to find.
literature
- Christel Jeschke: Tata / Morocco: Pearl of the Anti-Atlas. A province for adventurers and discoverers. Edith Kohlbach publishing house 2008