About Sidi Kacem
Sidi Kacem (in Arabic Sīdī Qāssim سيدي قاسم) is a medium-sized town in North-West Morocco and the capital of the province of the same name.
Sidi Kacem (in Arabic Sīdī Qāssim سيدي قاسم) is a medium-sized town in North-West Morocco and the capital of the province of the same name. Its inhabitants, the "Kacemis", numbered 74,062 (according to the 2004 census). Located on the routes between Meknes (45 km) - Tangier (210 km) and Fez (85 km) - Rabat (120 km), it is situated where the Rdom river leaves the heights of the Meknes plateau to enter the large and fertile Gharb plain ("Gharb" means West in Arabic, in relation to Fez, the former capital of the kingdom).
As the chief town of the "Sidi Kacem province" (Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen region) or more commonly the "Chrardas", the town is a collection centre for cereals produced in the hills to the East and North. Wheat wholesalers are locally known as "céréalistes". The town is also an active market in the South-East corner of the rich Gharb plain, which produces citrus fruits, olive oil, cotton, sugar beet, and rice. The town has two important Souks: the Thursday one, in town, where all the local farmers can be found, and the Sunday one, which is more recent, to the North of the town, where mainly the town's inhabitants are found.
The town was founded in two stages, which gave it two distinct and still separated poles: the Zaouia and the town centre with the Souk al-Khmis (Thursday Souk).
