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In Rabat, our next stop overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. It included three famous attractions that are located adjacent to each other:
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| The Mausoleum of Mohammed V |
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| The Tour Hassan (in the distance) and the Ruins of the Mosque of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur (in the foreground.) |
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The Mausoleum is a breathtaking architectural work decorated to reflect Moroccan art from ancient times to the present. It was built in 1971 by King Hassan II in honor of his father whose remains rest within. The interior may be viewed, but we didn't get to enter the mausoleum because some government VIPs arrived just as we were about to enter. The VIPs pre-empted our opportunity to view the interior. Oh well, the privileges of rank!
The Tour (Tower) Hassan is an unfinished 12th century minaret that stands some 144 feet tall and was designed to be twice that height. Construction was abandoned at the death of Sultan Yakub el Mansur in 1199. The Tour Hassan has now become a landmark feature of Rabat's skyline. Between the Mausoleum and the Tour Hassan are a fountain, a courtyard, and hundreds of columns. They are all that remain of a great mosque intended to be the largest in the Muslim world. We were told that the the earthquake of 1522 in Lisbon demolished the unfinished edifice, leaving only the 360 (or was it 354?) columns as a memorial to the construction effort. What a quake that must have been!
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Leaving Rabat . . .
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We continued north along the Atlantic to the tiny seaside village of Asilah.
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In Asilah, we had lunch and a drink of Morocco's favorite bottled beverage . . .
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Asilah turned out to have the cleanest and most unclutteret Casbah that we had seen in all Morocco. But, it also had one of the smelliest harbors that we have ever confronted!
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And the popular bottled beverage that accompanied our lunch? It was, of course, . . .
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Continue to the next page.
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