Rabat

Day four in Morocco and I'm feeling much better and ready to see some more sites, so I  headed with a group to Rabat, about an hour or so north of Casablanca.  Picking up the modern history of Rabat from Wikipedia, "The French invaded Morocco in 1912 and established a protectorate. The French administrator of Morocco, General Hubert Lyautey, decided to relocate the country's capital from Fez to Rabat. Among other factors, rebellious citizens had made Fez an unstable place. Sultan Moulay Youssef followed the decision of the French and moved his residence to Rabat. In 1913, Gen. Lyautey hired Henri Prost who designed the Ville Nouvelle (Rabat's modern quarter) as an administrative sector. When Morocco achieved independence in 1956, Mohammed V, the then King of Morocco, chose to have the capital remain at Rabat."  

Rabat is a beautiful seaside town, maybe a little resort-y even.  We began by visiting the King's palace but only spent a few minutes there before heading of to Chellah, a fascinating ruin city.  According to Wikipedia, "The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians, who founded several colonies in Morocco, probably inhabited the banks of the Bou Regreg. Chellah is the site of the ruins of the Roman town known as Sala Colonia, referred to as Sala by Ptolemy. Excavations show an important port city with ruined Roman architectural elements including a decumanus maximus or principal Roman way, a forum and a triumphal arch.

"The site was abandoned in 1154 in favour of nearby Salé. The Almohad dynasty used the ghost town as a necropolis. In the mid-14th century, a Merinid sultan, Abu l-Hasan, built monuments and the main gate, dated to 1339. These later Merinid additions included a mosque, a zawiya, and royal tombs, including that of Abu l-Hasan.  Many structures in Chellah/Sala Colonia were damaged by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The site has been converted to a garden and tourist venue."  We only spend 30 minutes there, but I could easily have spent a day.  Here are a few photos.

 Chellah is famous for the storks that nest among the ruins.

After Chellah we visited the mausoleum of King Mohammed V.  From Wikipedia:  "The Mausoleum of Mohammed V is a historical building located on the opposite side of the Hassan Tower on the Yacoub al-Mansour esplanade in Rabat, Morocco. It contains the tombs of the Moroccan king and his two sons, late King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. The building is considered a masterpiece of modern Alaouite dynasty architecture, with its white silhouette, topped by a typical green tiled roof, green being the color of Islam. A reader of the Koran is often present, having his assigned seat. Its construction was completed in 1971. Hassan II was buried there following his death in 1999."

The mausoleum sits across a plaza from Hassan Tower, "the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat, Morocco.  Begun in 1195, the tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, also intended to be the world's largest. In 1199, Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour died and construction on the mosque stopped. The tower only reached 44 m (140 ft), about half of its intended 86 m (260 ft) height. The rest of the mosque was also left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 200 columns being constructed. The tower, made of red sandstone, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms an important historical and tourist complex in Rabat.  Instead of stairs, the tower is ascended by ramps. The minaret's ramps would have allowed the muezzin to ride a horse to the top of the tower to issue the call to prayer."