Oujda
— — a thousand-year city kept by its own gate.
Not only on a wall.
“The far north-east corner of Morocco, fifteen kilometres from the Algerian border. Oujda was founded in 994 by Ziri ibn Atiya of the Maghrawa Berbers and has held its place at the crossing of the trans-Maghreb road ever since. The old medina still works through Bab Sidi Abdelwahab. The gharnati music tradition, carried from Andalusia, meets here each June for the city's international festival.
Oujda, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Oujda is the capital of Morocco's Oriental Region, set on a plain between the Beni Snassen mountains and the High Plateau, roughly fifteen kilometres west of the Algerian border. The population is about 510,000, making it the country's eighth-largest city. It was founded in 994 AD by Ziri ibn Atiya, chief of the Maghrawa Berber confederation, as a stronghold on the route between Fes and Tlemcen. Université Mohammed Premier, founded in 1978, is the main university of north-eastern Morocco and anchors the modern city. The Angad airport serves regular flights to Casablanca and Europe.
The old medina sits inside a remaining stretch of ochre rammed-earth wall, entered through Bab Sidi Abdelwahab, the principal historic gate, dated to the late seventeenth century under the Alaouite dynasty. The Grand Mosque, begun in the thirteenth century under the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub, holds the religious centre. The Sidi Yahya oasis, six kilometres east of the city, is a freshwater grove venerated by Muslims, Jews, and Christians; one local tradition identifies it as a burial place of John the Baptist, and the three faiths have shared the grounds for centuries.
Oujda is widely held as one of the centres of gharnati music, the Andalusi tradition carried from Granada after 1492. The Festival International de Musique Gharnatie has been held in the city each June since 1991, drawing ensembles from across Morocco, Algeria, and the European diaspora. The city also hosts the Festival International du Raï each July, the largest raï gathering in Morocco. The land border with Algeria has been closed since 1994; the music keeps moving where the road does not.