Visitors look at books at the 24th Casablanca's International Book Fair in Casablanca, Morocco, on Feb. 9, 2018. The 24th Casablanca's International Book Fair opened on Thursday, bringing together 709 exhibitors from Morocco and around the world. (Xinhua/S. Aissa)

RABAT, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The 24th Casablanca's International Book Fair opened on Thursday, bringing together 709 exhibitors from Morocco and around the world.

Inaugurated by Morocco's Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan, the book fair, featuring 125,000 books, is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Egypt, as the guest of honor of the book fair, will showcase the literature legacy of Egyptian writer Jamal El Ghitani to illustrate the Morocco-Egypt cultural relations.

El Ghitani, who died at the age of 70 in 2015, is considered to be one of Egypt's most acclaimed novelists.

This year's fair, which will run until Feb. 18, includes daily thematic conferences, poetic evenings and signatures of books, as well as the awarding of the Ibn Batouta Prize for travel literature.