The 800 Year-old Tree of Gouraud.. The Oldest Tree in Africa

In Cèdre Gouraud Forest there is the oldest tree in the all Africa, and one of  the oldest in the world, visited every year by thousands of visitors and tourists from Morocco and the world, it stands with pride and glory, welcoming its visitors.

The Cèdre Gouraud Forest is located 11 kilometers away of the beautiful city of Ifran, in the region of Azrou, among a forest of cedars, and the age of its landmark tree is estimated to be more than 800 years, and it was discovered the first time by a French general called Henry Joseph Gouraud, which the tree took its name, the general Gouraud was the representative of the French occupation authorities in the region, he lost his hand in the fight in Syria, so, the tree is looking just like him, as you can see in the photo above, it has an arm lost too!

The landmark tree is 42 meters long, and it has a lot of human friends, but, not only them, there is also the Atlas monkeys or the “Macaques”, which are very friendly with tourists, they come closer every time to get feed by the hand of the visitors, also, the people of the region benefit from the touristic activity like offering to the tourists the service of taking photos or going on a ride in horses, or selling souvenirs.

If you are one of the fans of ecological tourism, we'd advise you heavily on your next trip to Morocco to go and give a look to the Cèdre Gouraud Forest, taking some photos and don’t forget to feed the monkeys!