| CASABLANCA The old and the new: views from our hotel.  |  |
After waking up from our first night in Morocco, we visit the Hassan II Mosque. Named after the former king of Morocco, it’s located on a promontory over the Atlantic Ocean, and the water is visible through a glass floor in the great hall. This is the 7th largest religious building in the world, with a 210-meter minaret that’s the world’s tallest. Completed in 1993, it holds 105,000 worshippers. It is said that construction cost $800 million, and that every family in Morocco was required to contribute financially. While the vast majority of mosques are off-limits to non-Muslims, we are allowed to enter the Hassan II Mosque during specific hours.
RABAT
Driving north along the Atlantic, we head for Rabat, the capital of the kingdom of Morocco. Rabat is a beautiful clean city and all foreign embassies are located here, and we drive past many of them along wide tree-lined avenues and green spaces.
We meet our historical guide at the huge ancient gate leading into an evocative place of excavated ruins called the Chellah. As early as 8 BC, this was a trading post between the locals and the Phoenicians, until the Romans moved in and built their city here in the 1st century. At this time Morocco was called Mauritania, the origin of the name “Moors.”
In 1755 a huge earthquake struck in Portugal, creating a tsunami that wiped out much of Rabat, its huge defensive wall, and the Chellah. Not until the 1920’s did archaeologists discover the Roman ruins buried here and begin excavation. We wander the grounds of this magical place of arches, fallen columns, beautiful wild gardens, and huge white storks flying overhead who’ve build massive messy nests of sticks atop the walls and even on the old minaret.
Driving north along the Atlantic, we head for Rabat, the capital of the kingdom of Morocco. Rabat is a beautiful clean city and all foreign embassies are located here, and we drive past many of them along wide tree-lined avenues and green spaces.
We meet our historical guide at the huge ancient gate leading into an evocative place of excavated ruins called the Chellah. As early as 8 BC, this was a trading post between the locals and the Phoenicians, until the Romans moved in and built their city here in the 1st century. At this time Morocco was called Mauritania, the origin of the name “Moors.”
In 1755 a huge earthquake struck in Portugal, creating a tsunami that wiped out much of Rabat, its huge defensive wall, and the Chellah. Not until the 1920’s did archaeologists discover the Roman ruins buried here and begin excavation. We wander the grounds of this magical place of arches, fallen columns, beautiful wild gardens, and huge white storks flying overhead who’ve build massive messy nests of sticks atop the walls and even on the old minaret.
We then proceed to the Mausoleum of Mohammad V which stands in a vast open courtyard on a hilltop, across from an old unfinished minaret.
Next we visit the picturesque Oudaia Kasbah, built in the late 1600's to protect the city and enclosed by ramparts.
At day’s end, we arrive at our riad Villa Mandarine, a gorgeous property that was once a traditional Moroccan home built around a central tiled courtyard with a splashing fountain, date palms and many other flowering plants. It’s peaceful and quiet here, a perfect retreat after the bustle of Casablanca.
