Berkane

Berkane is the orchard city of the east — the town that gives Morocco its clementines, set between Oujda and the Mediterranean coast in a plain watered by the Moulouya's reach. It is a working agricultural centre, not a sightseeing stop, and it carries the plain pride of a place that feeds the country's fruit bowls. The road to Saidia's beaches runs through it, and the Moulouya wetlands — a Ramsar haven for migratory birds — lie between it and the sea. Hicham El Guerrouj, the middle-distance runner, was born here; the town has not forgotten.

This is for the traveller passing through to the coast, or the one who wants ordinary eastern Morocco, honestly. It is not a destination of monuments; its dignity is in its trees and its runners.