For various reasons, Casablanca almost got left off our itinerary, but I insisted on going there because I wanted to see the Hassan II Mosque, especially after having visited the monumental mosques in Abu Dhabi and Muscat. I wasn’t disappointed, because it was simply spectacular.

We didn’t see much else in Casablanca because quite frankly, there didn’t seem to be much else to see other than the famous Rick’s Café. I can say I’ve been there, but it’s not a place I’d go back to.

About the mosque:

“With a prayer hall that can accommodate 25.000, the Hassan II Mosque is the second-largest religious building in the world, after the mosque in Mecca. The complex covers 9 hectares (978,774 square feet), two-thirds of it being built over the sea. The minaret, the lighthouse of Islam, is 200 m (656 feet) high, and two laser beams, reaching over a distance of 30 km (18.5 miles) shine in the direction of Mecca. The building was designed by Michel Pinseau, 35,000 craftsmen worked on it, and it opened in 1993. … [It] is a monument to Moroccan architectural virtuosity and craftsmanship.” (“Eyewitness Travel, Morocco”)

The last image in the Essaouira gallery, the blue of Morocco posted earlier: