Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer

Capital regions carry weight beyond their economic output. Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer contained Morocco's administrative core—the royal palace, parliament, ministries, foreign embassies—alongside Sale's centuries-old medina and the agricultural Zemmour plains. Unlike Fes or Marrakesh (former imperial capitals now tourist economies), Rabat remained the living seat of government when King Mohammed V made it the capital of independent Morocco in 1956.

The Hassan Tower, begun in 1195 under Almohad Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour and never completed, stands as the region's architectural anchor—a minaret that was supposed to be the world's largest mosque, halted when the sultan died in 1199. The unfinished tower and its 200 marble column fragments set the pattern: Rabat developed not through commercial dominance but through political designation. The French protectorate (1912-1956) made it their administrative capital, building the Ville Nouvelle with its grid streets and Art Deco government buildings. After independence, the Moroccan state inherited this infrastructure and expanded it.

In 2015, Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer merged with Gharb-Chrarda-Béni Hssen to form Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, combining the political capital with the agricultural breadbasket to its north. The merger recognized functional integration: Kenitra's port and the Gharb plains' wheat and rice production had long supplied the capital's food needs. The administrative logic followed resource flows rather than cultural boundaries.

Through 2026, Rabat continues attracting government workers, diplomats, and NGO staff. The capital function generates stable employment less vulnerable to tourism fluctuations or commodity price shocks than resource-extraction regions. Political centralization remains the defining feature: decisions made in Rabat's ministries shape trajectories across all eleven other regions.