Moroccan Adventure

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Friday, 28 October 2022 - Up early for a walk around Rabat, explored the Casbah of the Oudaias with its renovated streets, old mosque, and blue doors with bougainvillea, walked down to the seashore and nearby cafe popular with surfers, visited the Rabat Lighthouse and the Laalou Muslim cemetery with rose-water rituals, toured the city including the Hassan Tower minaret, Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and the Royal Palace exterior, observed palace guards, local art displays, and enjoyed coffee in the Casbah before returning to the hotel.

morocco2022 — Virginia Ann posing near our hotel against a mural. Note the cat in the background.

morocco2022 — Cal also poses near the mural.

morocco2022 — A very intricate pattern in tile on a public fountain.

morocco2022 — Cal in front of the fountain.

morocco2022 — We wandered to the Casbah of the Oudaias which was not very far from the hotel. The area has undergone a renovation and is very clean and modern looking.

In the middle of the picture is the Old Mosque dating from 1150, it was largely restored in the 18th century.

morocco2022 — More doors - this time painted blue with a beautiful bougainvillea growing alongside.

morocco2022 — Virginia Ann finds a red door.

morocco2022 — Pretty home entry at the end of a walkway.

morocco2022 — The Casbah is a fort built in the 12th century to protect the area from various enemies over the years. The Casbah is located on a hill at the mouth of the Bou Regreg River where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

morocco2022 — We worked our way down from the Casbah to the seashore below and then along the shore. This little cafe is perched at a public access way to the beach which seemed popular with surfers.

morocco2022 — Not far from the Casbah is the Rabat lighthouse. The Rabat Lighthouse was built in 1920 and is 90 feet high.

morocco2022 — The Atlantic Ocean waves crashing against the rocks below the lighthouse.

morocco2022 — Overlooking the lighthouse on a hill is a massive cemetery, the Laalou muslim cemetery. A very interesting feature of the graves was the plants on top of the raised graves.

morocco2022 — Hundreds, maybe thousands of graves. We walked through the cemetery and there were many people sprinkling the gravesites with rose water. It was Friday, which is the holy day for Muslims. At the entrances to the cemetery were men selling rose water.

morocco2022 — The view from the top of the cemetery hill looking over the cemetery to the Atlantic Ocean with the lighthouse on the left.

morocco2022 — We returned to the hotel for a break at noon then went out with our guide for a walk in the city. We would visit some of the same locations we saw in the morning.

This cat posed for us as we were walking along in the Medina.

morocco2022 — Pretty mosque entrance.

morocco2022 — The ceiling of the arch over the mosque.

morocco2022 — A closeup of the mosque corner showing all the texture and patterns.

morocco2022 — Display at a vegetable stall in the Medina. It was Friday, so many stores were not open.

morocco2022 — We walked back to the Casbah of the Oudaias - this is the great wall surrounding the Casbah.

morocco2022 — Below the top of the courtyard, is a sqala, a seaside fortification and artillery platform.

morocco2022 — We then took the car over to the Hassan Tower.

Outside the entrance are two mounted guards - very cool that the post is built for the two horsemen.

morocco2022 — Hassan Tower is the minaret of an incomplete mosque. It was commissioned near the end of the 12th century. The tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world, and the mosque, if completed, would have been the largest in the western Muslim world. Construction on the mosque stopped in 1199. The minaret was left standing at a height of 144 feet. The rest of the mosque was left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 348 columns being constructed.

morocco2022 — The mosque was given cylindrical stone columns rather than the brick piers more commonly seen in Almohad architecture. These columns were to be formed from drums of differing height, an idea that, while innovative at the time, slowed construction significantly and contributed to the mosque's unfinished state.[

morocco2022 — The Mausoleum of Mohammed V took 10 years to build starting in 1961. Beautiful golden sculpture outside the white marble structure.

morocco2022 — We then began moving back to the hotel and while passing the Royal Palace our guide saw that the public could enter. The Royal Palace in Rabat is the official residence of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco and his family.

We visited the palace mosque first - not allowed to go in. This is the covered colonnade on the front of the building.

morocco2022 — The Royal mosque.

morocco2022 — The main gate into the palace.

morocco2022 — Guards from four different branches of the police stand guard.

morocco2022 — The alley to our hotel - there was an art exhibition lining the alleyways that explains the rugs.

morocco2022 — We went for coffee in the Casbah of the Oudaias and on our way back spotted this very ornate door.

morocco2022 — The Great Gate of the Casbah is considered one of most beautiful gates of Moroccan architecture. It was built between 1195 and 1199, inserted into the previous walls of the Casbah. It has both an outer facade and an inner facade both richly decorated. The massive gate is largely ceremonial and had little defensive value given its position already inside the city walls.

Virginia Ann is tiny in front of the inner facade of the massive gate.

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