Casablanca in a Day

Hi, followers!

Last weekend we went to the reknowned Casablanca for a quick trip. It's a commercial city (one of the largest in Africa), with about 3.5 million residents. It has lots of architecture, parks and boulevards left over from the city's heyday in the '20s and '30s, and miles of poverty-stricken shantytowns.

The most important building in the city is the Hassan II Mosque, a fantastical structure built above the sea by the late king (father of the current king), using his own money and "donations" from every single Moroccan.

It's the third largest mosque in the world, and the only mosque open to non-Muslims in the country (see previous blog). It's hard to describe how incredibly huge this place is! I hope you can grasp the scale of it from these pictures.

The interior can house 25,000 worshippers (yes, I said 25,000), and the roof retracts to let in natural light. Female worshippers have a separate, raised area, called the women's gallery, which accomodates 5,000. If there are more than that at a service, such as during Ramadan, the women pray in the back of the great hall, where no one can see all their rear ends!

Almost all the material used in the mosque is from Morocco, including cedar, marble, ceramic tiles, granite and wool. Craftspeople from all over the country contributed, and decorated sections with signature designs from their home regions. (Someone who lives in Morocco can tell in an instant the embroidery, rugs, tilework, etc. from various places such as Fes and Marrakesh.) Even the elaborate woodwork used to build the women's gallery is divided into sections made by woodcrafters from different areas.

Below the main hall are the ablution rooms, where worshippers cleanse themselves in a ritual fashion at one of dozens of marble fountains, before praying.

The mosque is at the edge of the ocean (and is in fact built on pillars above the sea), so the location is a favorite relaxing spot for Casablancans. (At some other point, I'll describe the courtship scene in Morocco, but young couples do spend a lot of time together, and do NOT have sex before marriage.)

No visit to Casablanca would be complete without a trip to Rick's Cafe, of film fame. It never was a real place, of course, but in 2004 an American created a very fine restaurant that mimicked the style of the movie cafe.

The food was fantastic there! It was quiet during the day, but looked like it would be quite exciting and beautiful at night.

In general, the people with whom we interacted in Casablanca were relaxed and friendly (we think because it is not a tourist city and they were not focused on trying to sell us anything).

At a small park outside Rick's we chatted with a 10-year old girl who spoke English, French and Arabic, and she helped me pronounce a number of phrases in my phrasebook. My fellow traveler Judy took a video; I'll let you know if she posts it anywhere on the Web. Of course, I look stupid in the video, but I'll overcome my vanity!

After the mosque and Rick's, we strolled the city streets in a leisurely way, looking at buildings and parks and going into the occasional shop, and then returned to Rabat via a one-hour train ride.

Although Casablanca is big and littered, the sun shone, the air was sweet with the moisture of the ocean, and the people were lovely. You can see why it is a romantic place where people want to escape!

The following day we went horseback riding at a seaside town near Rabat. More to come!

B'salaamah.