But that peace was shattered over the weekend, as it was hit by a devastating magnitude-6.8 earthquake.
How common are earthquakes in Morocco?
The powerful earthquake was caused by a collision between the African and Eurasian plates.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said a quake with a magnitude higher than six has not been recorded within 500 kilometres of the site since its records began in 1900.
“Earthquakes in the magnitude-6 range are more common in the northern part of Morocco near the Mediterranean Sea, where a magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck in February 2004, and a magnitude-6.3 in January 2016,” the USGS summary of the event said.
But Mark Quigley, who is an Associate Professor of Earthquake Science at the University of Melbourne, said that doesn’t mean the area is not prone to such disasters.
“Just because there hasn’t been an earthquake of the same magnitude in the instrumental period, does not mean that there won’t be plenty of geological evidence for earthquakes that have broken the crust in that area in the past,” Dr Quigley said.
“It’s an area that we know can — and as we’ve just seen through this event, will — produce earthquakes of this magnitude.”
Geoscience Australia’s Hadi Ghasemi agreed.
“They are not frequent, but certainly they are not unexpected,” Dr Ghasemi said.
“Since 1900, there have been at least nine magnitude-5 earthquakes within this 500 kilometre radius of this recent event.
“So, certainly there are events happening in that region.”
In 1960, a magnitude-5.8 earthquake in Agadir, in western Morocco killed 12,000-15,000 people.
Dr Quigley said the mountains where Oukaimeden is located were formed by shifting plates in the region.
“It’s not a surprise or a shock, because there’s lots of seismicity in this region,” he said.
He said this quake was in response to tectonic plate motions as the African and Eurasian plates bump against each other.
The USGS said the earthquake occurred in the African plate, approximately 550km south of where the African and Eurasian plates bump against each other.
“It’s a bit peripheral to the main part of the plate boundary. But the mountains that are built in that region are a consequence of plate tectonics,” Dr Quigley said.
“This is kind of analogous in some ways to the earthquake sequence in Christchurch, in New Zealand, which is not right on the main plate boundary fault, but is hundreds of kilometres away,” he said.
“It just highlights how plate boundaries can have these large earthquakes on the fringes, which can cause lots of damage and create challenges and so on.”
How devastating was this earthquake?
Based on the size of the earthquake and the number of people living nearby, the USGS estimates fatalities will be between 1,000 and 10,000.
The official death toll of the earthquake is already at more than 2,100.
The USGS estimates economic losses would be between zero to 8 per cent GDP of Morocco, running into billions of dollars.
It designated the disaster a “red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses”.
Emergency workers carry a dead body, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake.
“High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” the USGS said.
“Past red alerts have required a national or international response.”
Why was it so destructive?
The magnitude and shallowness of the earthquake, coupled with the number of people and the style of buildings in the area, have combined to make it particularly devastating.
The USGS said the quake was “relatively shallow” at 26km below the surface, while the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre measured it at 12km below the surface — making it a crustal earthquake.
Crustal earthquakes generate more waves because of their proximity to the earth’s surface, making them powerful, like the deadly quake felt in Indonesia’s West Java, in November last year.
Dr Quigley said the terrain in Morocco where the quake occurred would have amplified the shaking.
“When we get a crustal earthquake of this magnitude, it releases a lot of energy … and the energy that it releases can be amplified, for example, in softer sediments like in Marrakech,” he said.