Morocco Flag: Meaning, History, Colors & Pictures

Morocco’s national flag is a red rectangle with a centered green pentagram, an open five-pointed star with one tip pointing upward. Its height-to-length ratio is 2:3. The modern emblem was introduced by a decree dated November 17, 1915; a 2005 decree gives detailed specifications for the design and cloth.

Morocco’s national flag has a vivid red field and a palm-green star. Those are the color descriptions in the 2005 royal decree. The law defines the appearance in words; the cited text does not provide numerical HEX, RGB, CMYK, or Pantone specifications for the two colors.

The downloadable GKBook illustrations use red #C1272D, equivalent to RGB 193, 39, 45, and green #006233, equivalent to RGB 0, 98, 51. These are familiar digital reference values. They identify this package’s artwork and should not be presented as numerical color specifications enacted by Morocco’s flag decree.

Red connects Morocco’s flag with the historical banner tradition of the Alaouite dynasty. An institutional account of research presented at Morocco’s Royal Institute for Research in Moroccan History identifies red with Alaouite political power. That historical association is better documented than assigning one compulsory modern meaning to every color.

The green star is associated with Islam, and its five points are commonly interpreted as representing the Five Pillars of Islam. This is an established symbolic reading, found in government reference material and Moroccan commentary. The flag’s legal description specifies a green five-branched star without assigning a separate meaning to each point.

The 1915 decree calls the added emblem a five-branched Seal of Solomon. On Morocco’s flag, that means a green pentagram: a continuous, crossing five-pointed star with open red spaces inside it. The national emblem has five points, so a six-pointed star is not an interchangeable substitute.

The standard national flag consists of the red field and green star; it does not include the national motto, a crown, or the full royal coat of arms. Article 4 of the Constitution states the flag’s design and the kingdom’s motto separately. Adding those other symbols changes the standard flag image.

Morocco’s national flag has a height-to-length ratio of 2:3. Expressed with the horizontal length first, the same proportion is 3:2. A flag 120 centimeters long is therefore 80 centimeters high. The whole rectangular field follows this ratio, including the area behind the central star.

The 2005 decree places the star within an invisible circle whose radius equals one-sixth of the flag’s horizontal length. The circle is centered where the rectangle’s diagonals meet. Because the flag is 2:3, that radius also equals one-quarter of its height; the circle’s diameter equals half the height.

A regular pentagram can be constructed by placing five equally spaced points around a circle and joining every second point. Start with one point at the top. The resulting continuous path crosses itself and leaves an open central pentagon. For Morocco’s flag, the completed green bands must preserve those open spaces.

The 2005 decree states that each star branch has a width equal to one-twentieth of its length. This proportion concerns the branch, not the whole flag. In the GKBook reconstruction, a branch is measured between its two outer tips, and the green band’s thickness is measured perpendicular to that branch.

The flag’s center is the center of the star’s construction circle, located at the intersection of the rectangle’s diagonals. It is not the midpoint of the star’s highest and lowest painted points. An upright five-pointed star is not vertically symmetrical, so those two centering methods produce different results.

Scale the entire design uniformly while retaining its 2:3 height-to-length ratio and the star’s relative measurements. For any chosen horizontal length L, use height 2L/3 and construction-circle radius L/6. These formulas generate consistent sizes without inventing a compulsory list of standard dimensions in centimeters or pixels.

The decree introducing the green five-pointed emblem is dated November 17, 1915, under Sultan Moulay Youssef. This is the documented decree date associated with the modern red-and-green design. It should be distinguished from later execution and publication steps, the 2005 technical specification, and Morocco’s recovery of independence in 1956.

Several dates describe different events. November 17, 1915 is the date of the decree adding the star; its French text also carries a November 25 execution endorsement. November 23, 2005 is the later specification decree’s date, while December 15, 2005 is its publication date in the French Official Bulletin.

The 1915 decree explains that Morocco needed an emblem distinguishable from other nations’ flags. It says the inherited flag could be confused with other flags, particularly maritime signals. The addition of a central green five-branched Seal of Solomon supplied a distinctive identifying feature while retaining the established red field.

Morocco’s earlier flag history includes dynastic, military, religious, and local banners rather than one continuously standardized national design. The Alaouite red-banner tradition is the immediate background to the modern flag. A plain red field is therefore a useful historical comparison, provided it is identified as a schematic illustration rather than a surviving textile.

The securely documented attribution is to Sultan Moulay Youssef as the sovereign who issued the 1915 decree adding the green star. That does not establish who personally drew every line of the emblem. The cited primary record does not identify a separate graphic designer, so a sole artist’s name should not be asserted as fact.

No. The decree adding the green star dates from 1915, before Morocco recovered independence in 1956. The red-and-green emblem continued into the independent state. Its significance developed through national political life, but a new state of independence and the first legal introduction of a flag are different historical events.

Morocco’s Independence Day is November 18, whereas the decree adding the star is dated November 17, 1915. The two dates should not be merged. The official national calendar also includes Throne Day on July 30 and the Revolution of the King and the People anniversary on August 20.

Article 4 of the 2011 Constitution identifies Morocco’s emblem as a red flag with a central green five-branched star. The 1915 decree establishes the addition of that emblem, while Dahir no. 1-05-99 of November 23, 2005 supplies the detailed proportions, colors in words, and requirements for the cloth and star.

The 2005 decree specifies opaque, rectangular, colorfast cloth in vivid red. It describes the palm-green star as continuous, open, woven into the material, and visible on both faces. Those are explicit physical requirements. The cited article does not set a universal fabric weight, a mandatory polyester grade, or a list of approved commercial suppliers.

The decree requires the green star to be visible on both faces of the flag. Its upright regular pentagram is symmetrical from left to right, so a horizontal mirror image retains the same recognizable shape. The legal requirement for visibility on both sides does not by itself prescribe every possible sewing or printing process.

For an educational display, use the complete red rectangle, the correct proportions, and the upright open star without added lettering or emblems. For a state ceremony, follow the responsible institution’s protocol. The design decree does not supply a complete rulebook for precedence, staff heights, parade order, or every arrangement with foreign flags.

Rotating the horizontal flag by a quarter turn makes the star point sideways. The 2005 text says that one point faces upward, but the sources consulted do not establish a separate official portrait-format construction. For a simple educational image, preserve the standard horizontal flag; formal vertical installations need an authoritative arrangement for that setting.

The design provisions cited here do not establish a universal sunrise-and-sunset timetable or a nationwide lighting rule for every flag. An institution may have additional instructions for its own premises or ceremony. A general display custom should therefore not be presented as a specific Moroccan legal obligation without the relevant authority.

Flags may be lowered when an official mourning decision directs it. After the September 2023 earthquake, a royal decision established three days of national mourning with flags at half-mast on public buildings. That documented example shows the practice, but it does not establish one automatic mourning duration or exact staff measurement for every future event.

Handle a flag carefully, replace badly damaged display copies, and keep its design recognizable. These are practical care recommendations. Commercial use raises a separate issue: Morocco’s national-symbol provisions address unauthorized use of the emblem as a trademark. Availability of a downloadable illustration does not itself grant permission for every branded product or commercial use.

Morocco’s flag emoji is 🇲🇦. Its sequence combines the regional indicator letters M and A, encoded as U+1F1F2 and U+1F1E6. A device may display the sequence as a flag or as letters, depending on support. The country sequence is standardized; the detailed artwork and shades are supplied by the platform.

Common errors include using a filled or six-pointed star, rotating the top point sideways, stretching the 2:3 rectangle, and making the construction radius one-sixth of the height instead of the length. Other mistakes are treating a web palette as statutory and replacing the 1915 decree date with the 1956 independence date.