Frequently asked questions

Afourar is a town in Azilal Province, in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region of central Morocco, at roughly 32.21°N, 6.55°W and about 450–500 m above sea level. It lies 29 km south-west of Beni Mellal on the N25 (also signposted R304), the road that climbs from the Tadla plain to the Bin El Ouidane dam and on to Azilal.

You will see the name written Afourar, Afourer and ‏أفورار‏ — all the same place.

Three things, mostly. It gives its name to the Nadorcott mandarin, the easy-peel citrus selected in 1982 at the INRA research station outside the town and now grown on four continents. It hosts the Afourer pumped-storage hydroelectric station, a 465 MW “water battery” built into the hills above the town. And it is the last town on the plain before the road climbs to Bin El Ouidane, which makes it a natural stop for anyone heading into the Central High Atlas.

The Nadorcott is a late-season, easy-peel mandarin that is seedless when grown away from cross-pollination. It was found in 1982 by Dr El-Bachir Nadori at the INRA experimental station at Afourer, among Murcott mandarin trees planted there in 1964. The station existed because the Tadla plain, newly irrigated from the Bin El Ouidane dam, needed citrus varieties suited to Moroccan conditions — so the country's citrus breeding collection sat exactly where the chance seedling appeared.

The variety is sold as Nadorcott (from Nadori + Murcott) and, in several markets, as Afourer or W. Murcott Afourer. The full story is here.

January to April in Morocco, which is what made the variety commercially valuable: it ripens after clementines are finished, filling the late-winter gap in the northern-hemisphere soft-citrus calendar. Fruit generally reaches European and North American shelves from late January onwards.

465 MW. The Afourer pumped-storage station, commissioned in 2004 and operated by ONEE, runs two 172.5 MW and two 60 MW reversible Francis turbine-pumps between an upper reservoir at about 1,280 m and a lower one at about 480 m — an 800 m drop. It was Morocco's first pumped-storage plant. How it works.

By car it is about 3 hours from Casablanca (246 km) and about 3 hours from Marrakech (178 km). From Casablanca take the A7/A8 motorway to Beni Mellal, then the N8 south-west for 20 km and the N25 turn-off. From Marrakech the whole route is the N8 across the Rehamna and Tadla plains — no motorway, but good road. There is no railway; the nearest stations are on the Casablanca line. Full route notes, buses and grand taxis.

About 32 km, or 45 minutes' drive. The N25/R304 leaves Afourar and climbs steadily in switchbacks past the Aït Ouarda dam to the lake. It is a paved, well-used road, but it is narrow in places and slow behind lorries — budget more time than the distance suggests, and avoid it after dark if you can.

Yes. Afourar is a small working town with the ordinary rhythms of provincial Morocco, and visitors are unremarkable rather than a target. The usual sensible precautions apply — keep valuables out of sight, agree taxi fares before setting off, and dress as you would in any small Moroccan town.

The real risks here are on the road, not in the street: the mountain section towards Bin El Ouidane has blind bends, livestock and very little lighting, and summer heat above 40 °C is genuinely dangerous if you are walking without water.

March to May, and late September to November. Spring brings green slopes, full waterfalls at Ouzoud and daytime highs in the mid-20s °C. Autumn is warm, dry and quiet. Winter is cool and clear — good for mountain views, and it coincides with the mandarin harvest. July and August average highs near 40 °C, with the chergui desert wind pushing it higher; the lake is the only comfortable place to be. Month-by-month figures.

In Afourar itself there is one proper hotel, the four-star Chems Le Tazarkount — 135 rooms, an outdoor pool, a spa and hammam, a restaurant and a bar — alongside a few basic hôtels. Otherwise the choice is Bin El Ouidane, 45 minutes up the mountain, where the lakeside hotels and guesthouses are, or Beni Mellal, 35 minutes down on the plain, with the widest range of ordinary town hotels. More on where to stay and eat.

Moroccan Arabic (Darija) and Tamazight, usually both, often in the same conversation. The plain is historically Arabic-speaking and the mountains behind the town are Tamazight-speaking, and Afourar sits exactly on that seam. French is widely understood in shops and administration; English much less so outside the lake hotels.

Not to reach it — buses and grand taxis run to Afourar from Beni Mellal all day. But you do need one (or a hired driver) to make the trip worthwhile, because the reason to come is what is around it: the lake, the dam road, Ouzoud, the Aït Bougmez valley. Shared grand taxis cover the Bin El Ouidane road but on their own schedule.

Afourar's weekly souk is held on Sunday. Farmers come down from the Aït Attab hills and traders up from the plain to sell livestock, vegetables, olives, mint, cheap clothing, tools and secondhand everything. It starts around dawn and thins out by early afternoon, so go early — by eight in the morning it is fully alive, and by two it is over.

Within about 90 minutes: the Bin El Ouidane lake and its 133 m arch dam (32 km), the Ouzoud waterfalls (77 km), the town of Azilal and the road on to the Aït Bougmez valley, and the springs and gardens of Aïn Asserdoun above Beni Mellal (30 km). What to do around Afourar.

Afourar.info is an independent, non-commercial site built and maintained by Nabil Oukhouma. It sells nothing and books nothing; it exists because a town this interesting deserved more than a stub. Corrections are welcome.