Massira (Arabic: المسيرة, Berber: ⵎⴰⵙⵉⵔⴰ), or Hay Al Massira (also administratively known as Hay Hassani) is a sector of Marrakech made up of several small neighborhoods and housing estates. It is located in the Menara district located to the west of the city.
The Massira sector is bordered to the north by the districts of Inara and Hay Sofia, rather belonging to the Targa sector, to the east by the railway, to the west by the racecourse and the surrounding farms, to the beyond which is the El Afak district, and to the south by the RN8, also known as the Agadir and Essaouira road. In the broader sense, Massira also includes certain neighborhoods south of the RN8, notably Socoma, Azli and Iziki.
History
editThe district was born in the 1980s, with the desire to extend the city of Marrakech along two penetrating routes: the road to Agadir (National Route 8 Morocco), and avenue El Mouqaouama (route d'El Afak)[1]. The town planning of the three large districts of Massira (I, II and III) attests to a certain degree of planning: the avenues are wide, the monotony is broken by oblique circulation axes drawing out residential blocks with beveled shapes and municipal authorities seek to establish diversity both in the types of housing and in the socio-professional categories investing in the new neighborhoods. The odonymy reflects the atmosphere of the time, with an alternation of names sometimes evoking the nationalist struggle, sometimes the Sahara elevated to a sacred cause, or even the Palestinian cause dear to Hassan II.
Origin of the name
editHay Al Massira is a very common toponym in Morocco, designating neighborhoods in most Moroccan cities. It means "the march" and pays homage to the Green March, a highlight of the contemporary Moroccan history.
Housing
editMassira is an area mainly made up of working-class and middle-class neighborhoods. It is also a largely residential area. Most of the businesses are concentrated along avenues Dakhla and Hassan II (not to be confused with the homonymous avenue of Guéliz. The buildings are mostly concentrated in the district of Massira II and in the more recent Abwab, located in the western extension of Massira. Massira I is rather dominated by individual houses typical of popular Moroccan neighborhoods. Massira III, to the northwest, is dominated by houses and villas of higher standard.
List of neighborhoods, subdivisions and douars
editTransportation
edit- In 2019, the neighborhood was served by line A of the BHNS of Marrakech[2] and by the following bus lines:
- L3 (Arset El Bilk - Abwab Marrakech)
- L5 (Arset El Bilk - Doha)
- L6 (Bab Ghmat - Massira 3)
- L9 (Douar Dlam - Massira 3)
- L10 (Arset El Bilk - Massira 3)
- L13 (Izdihar - Massira 3)
- L21 (Mhamid - Hay Hassani)
- L22 (Bab Doukkala - Sidi Zouine)
- L23 (Bab Doukkala - Souihla ) near
- L27 (Bab Doukkala - Douar Jamaa)
- L43 (Bab Doukkala - Chichaoua)
- L66 (Arset El Bilk - Socoma) nearby