Meknes

Meknes is a city in northern Morocco, located 130 kilometres from the capital Rabat and 60 kilometres from Fes. It is served by the A2 expressway between those two cities and by the corresponding railway. Meknes was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail, before it was relocated to Marrakech. The population is 985,000. It is the capital of the Meknes-Tafilalet region.

Meknes is named after a Berber tribe which was known as Miknasa in the medieval North African sources. The original community from which Meknes can be traced was an 8th century Kasbah. A Berber tribe called the Miknasa, originated from the Tunisian south, settled there in the 9th century, and a town consequently grew around the previous borough.