Rabat City
Here is something you probably did not know about Rabat city: On the site of Chellah appeared the first traces of man in the eighth century BC.
Before it was called Rabat city, the Romans gave the name
"sala" to the city. They also built a river port, but it was destroyed
at the end of the Roman Empire.
The river of Bouregreg is located on each side of Berber tribes. A fortified monastery (ribat) will be built on the right bank by monks and by soldiers in the Xth century.The Almohad then made holy war from these ribats.
Jamma(Tour) Hassan was erected at the end of the XIIth century
by Yacoub el Mansour, Almohad ruler who will also give the final name
to the city Rabat El Fath (Victory ribat). It strengthend the Kasbah,
around two huge walls with five gates.
Rabat city will collapse after the death of Yacoub El Mansour, who never finished building the Tour Hassan.
La Tour Hassan will be neglected. As for the Kasbah it was inhabited but it no longer was used for its original purpose.
In the seventeenth century, a large population from Spain called Andalusia arrived at the Kasbah and built a security wall that separates the two Medinas. We call this wall the "Wall of Andalusians".
Over the centuries, Rabat became one place to withdraw from because the city became dangerous. Pirates and thugs have settled in and thus the city lost all its appeal despite its royal palace.
Rabat city became the administrative capital of Morocco in 1912 when General Lyautey instituted French protection.
The decision will be imposed on the Sultan Moulay Youssef. The French nationals will modernize Rabat.
Mohamed V later kept Rabat cityas capital after the French protectorate in 1956.
The choice to maintain its capital Rabat is also confirmed by Hassan II in 1961 and Mohamed VI in 1999. The latter two will keep the tradition of the Moroccan king who wants to be present in various palaces of Morocco.
Today Rabat is the second town in the country. It is also one of the cities where there are more flowers and also the city's most preserved in Morocco. the other side of the city is called Sale.
The city of Sale is in the vicinity of Rabat city. This town
was known until the late sixteenth century for its pirates. They threw
in the collision of enemy ships.
Once past the wall, you will find the streets covered with cedar wood, these streets are home to the oldest roof today up to 500 years old.
From the streets of Sale you can reach the Souk al ghazel which is the souk auction but also the Souk El Merzouk jewelry.
A little farther on is the food bazaar where you can enjoy the specialty of Sale, the Makroud which is a kind of fritter with potato and egg.
For historical monuments you will find nothing extraordinary except the mosque and the madrasa. It is a very architectural mosque with six doors, one of which is reserved for women a little further back and another reserved for funerals.
With regard to the madrasah it is a place you can visit today because it became a museum. This museum contains many objects of art like the Hispano-Moorish staircase which also allows you to access the roof and you can admire the view of Sale, BouRegreg (the river that separates Rabat from Sale), and also Tour Hassan.
THE TOUR HASSAN: Rabat city takes pride in having more than 50
mosques in the early twentieth century, most were the artistic work of
the Moroccan kings (dynasty present). The most prestigious of them
never was a place of
worship: the Hassan
Tower is actually the minaret
that was never finished and what should have been not only the largest
mosque in the world, but also the largest religious building in the
world .
The mosque Hassan was therefore improperly called Hassan Tower.
We know a lot of this gigantic work but the origin of the name is not known : the name, the name of a tribe nor name of the supervisor?
The only certainty is the date of commencement, 1196, and the name of the initiator, Yacoub El Mansour (Almohad dynasty). He wanted Rabat to be the capital of his empire, but he died three years later in 1199.
Hassan Tower remained an unfinished mosque. His successors did
not experience the need or time to complete the work. Slowly the
building deteriorated and the materials were thoroughly looted. The
earthquake of 1755 completely destroyed the colonnades.
The minaret (tower) is 44 meters above ground, but if we stick to the criteria of Almohad architecture (5 heights for 1 wide), it would have amounted to over 80 meters and beyond and the Koutoubia Marrakech.
Before the tour, there was the oratory, the remains of which can be seen like the marble columns.
It consisted of 18 spans, 312 columns and 44 pillars. The mosque walls were pierced by 14 gates.
Each of the four sides of the tower, carved directly in stone, wears a different ornamentation. The ramp that allows the ascent of the tower is large enough for a man riding the grave.
Even now, historians looking at whether the source of its
construction are the architects of the Koutoubia and the Giralda in
Seville, as the three buildings are similar.
Long ignored, but now restored, the Tour Hassan became the emblematic figure of Rabat and the pride of its inhabitants.
The choice of building the Mohammed V mausoleum(grave) was at the feet of the tower, is symbolic of the interest of Moroccans to the monument.
Check out the beautiful Oudaya Garden just a short walk away from the mausoleum.
I have actually walked from the beach to the marina port of sala to the tour Hassan to the oudaya garden in one evening. The weather is perfect and the air is fresh in this city.
I did some research about tour providers of this dreamy city and I found trip advisor has the best deals.
Agadir
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