Visit Casablanca in Morocco

The name Casablanca has meant the same since 1943 as the movie that became a classic. Everybody wants to see the bazaar were Ingrid Bergman was shopping and the café of Rick played by Humphrey Bogart. Those who approach the city from this point of view would be disappointed. The atmosphere of the film is much more tangible in Marrakech or Fez. Casablanca is the biggest city not only of Morocco but the entire North African region. It’s a busy and noisy port and industrial city. Ismidina was mostly devastated by the earthquake in 1755. What was left is not very big but it creates an interesting contrast with the modern metropolis.

The name of the city was probably given after the government palace, Casablanca means white house. While every house in Marrakech is brick red and the houses of Fez are okra yellow, in Casablanca almost every building is white. According to this, the houses of old town are white washed together with the archers above the narrow little streets. Of course, there is a royal district here also, the [Foreign Language]. A fascinating building of the prefecture is the characteristic example of Arab and ornamental texture, although this is an official building. In many similar old palaces places for accommodation or furnish. These are the so-called Riads, the equivalent of Spanish Paradores or Portuguese Pesados.

The furnishings mostly consist of original furniture and they only make allowances for the expectations of the age with regards to the bathrooms. The city can boast of relativity few sites especially since we look Rick’s café in vain. However, in the modern Sheraton hotel, there is a Casablanca bar which is made intimate by the photos and posters of the film. Moreover, we can buy t-shirts portraying Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart. And in evenings some plays it again on the synthesizer.

Besides the old mask, the Moulay Youssef and the Mohammad V, there are two Christian churches as remembrances of the French protectorate, the Notre Dame Dalort and the sacred Sacré Coeur Cathedral. After the big earthquake, the Portuguese are residence left the city that they called Casabranca. At this time Sultan Mohammad Ben Abdullah had Berbers settled here and established the flourishing trading city. He founded musk, baths and Koran schools. The busy Mohammad V square is the center of the modern city. The building of the city hall with its 50 meter high tower stands in the southern part.

In the eastern side, we can find the white block of the Moore-style palace of justice decorated with green [Foreign Language]. On the northern side is the arcade building of the main post office. There's also the police office, the French Consulate, with the equestrian statue of [Foreign Language]. This is the only statue in Morocco since the Islam forbids the portrayal of people. The basis of the economy of the city is the port. The traffic of which exceeded that of tangier and robot even back in 1856.

In 1907, the French provoked their riot here with finally led to the occupation of Morocco. The throne of Allah is over the water says the Koran. The father of the present ruler King Hassam II wanted to put this side here into practice when he entrusted the French Michelle Pinso with designing the most monumental mask of the country. The basis was given by the rocky peninsula reaching into the sea and it was supplemented in 45 to hold the 9,000 square meters of building complex with a minaret of 210 meters. The declared cost of the construction was in the early 90’s, 800 million US dollars. The maintenance costs are also very high which is not covered by the admission fee of 100 durums per person.

According to the Moroccan opposition, the successor and sum should have been used for other more important purposes with the foreigner eye; it definitely looks as though the infrastructural developments. The reservoir the environment protection, the development of health care, and the creation of new jobs sort of end of much greater importance. However, don’t forget that we’re talking about an Islamic country. There religion to defining element of the everyday lives of people. Anyhow, Hassam II erected a lessen monument for himself and the royal family of [Foreign Language].

The building which was opened in 1993 mirrors a technical level of the end of 20th century and to its credit. It does it; so that we may think that the building, guarding Islamic traditions is a century older than what it really is. For instance, the visitors don’t know that the large chandeliers are lowered by electric engines for cleaning that the muezzin goes up to the dizzying high tower by speed elevator. And at the lace decorations are the pillars hide high tech speakers. The ornamental decorations of the interior does the light tides were made by mixing gypsum and egg whites. 35,000 people worked on the Malvira period of 7 years.

The interior of the mosque can hold 25,000 men while in the balconies 5,000 women can pray. This separation has strictly practical reasons. If the space of a mosque it doesn’t allow this then women may only kneel in the back rows because if they were in the front bowing. It was supposedly evoke ideas and men not appropriate for prayers. In the buildings surrounding the mosque Islamic library, conference rooms and a religious school function, on the square closed by the wings of the buildings, 80,000 believers may sing the prayers of the Allah simultaneously. Since the believers don’t come here on camels anymore. There's an underground parking place under the square.

In the below stairs, there's also a bath which mostly serves the purposes of ritual cleansing. The five main pillars of faith to which we are reminded by the five pointed star of Moroccan flag are the following, faith, prayer, fasting, charity and pilgrimage turbine to obligation of pilgrimage from the top of the minaret laser ray of light visible from a distance of 30 kilometers shows that erection to Mecca.