Oujda: the border city between Morocco and Algeria

Just kilometers from the Algerian border, closed for decades, Oujda preserves a medina less touristy than Fès or Marrakech but equally authentic.

The center, border city between Morocco and Algeria, is comfortably explored on foot.

The Grand Mosque of Oujda, from the fourteenth century, remains one of the oldest and most important religious monuments in the city.

Just nearby, the medina of Oujda, surrounded by walls dating from the Almoravid period, preserves alleys and craft shops less beaten by mass tourism.

Continuing, you visit Lalla Aicha Park, a spacious green area in the heart of the modern city, popular among families in the evening hours.

As evening falls, the cafés around Place du 16 Août, the central plaza of the French colonial city, enliven the city's social life.

The border between Morocco and Algeria near Oujda has remained continuously closed since 1994 following a diplomatic crisis sparked by a terrorist attack in Marrakech, becoming one of the world's longest-closed land borders between two officially non-warring nations.

Oujda, historically a commercial crossroads between eastern Morocco and western Algeria, has had to reinvent its economy after decades of closure of its nearest border.