Discover Morocco with me

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Casablanca , My beautiful city

7:41 PM
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- Casablanca is Morocco's largest city and the country's main port which translates into quite a few gritty and industrial-looking neighborhoods. But Casablanca is also the most cosmopolitan of Morocco's cities, with nightclubs, fast food chains and high end boutiques. Below you'll find facts and information about Casablanca, where to stay, eat and what to see.

Casablanca is often the first stop for international passengers flying in from afar, and the city is basically used as a transit point. But before you dismiss it entirely and quickly move on to Fes, Rabat or Marrakech, you must stop to visit the Hassan II Mosque, honestly one of the most beautiful buildings ever built.

It is also the largest city in the Maghreb, as well as one of the largest and most important cities in Africa, both economically and demographically.

What to See and Do in Casablanca

- Hassan II Mosque - It took 6,000 traditional Moroccan artisans, five years to build this magnificent mosque, with its intricate mosaics, stone and marble floors and columns, sculpted plaster moldings, carved and painted wood ceilings. It's the largest mosque in the world, with room for more than 100,000 worshipers. Non-muslims are not allowed inside, but there's plenty to marvel at on the outside, and official tours do allow you access to certain parts.

- The Corniche - Sometimes referred to as the "South Beach of Morocco", or the "Blackpool of Morocco", the Corniche is basically a boardwalk lined with restaurants and nightclubs. It's where local folks go to relax and have fun. Take a stroll down the Corniche if you've spent time inland and want to enjoy the sea breeze. It's a little out of the center of town, so you'll need a cab. If it's hot, nip into one of the swimming pools owned by beach clubs and hotels along here

- Best time to Visit Casablanca

Casablanca is blessed with a mild climate, the winters are not too cold, but can be rainy. Summers are hot, but the cooling breeze from the Atlantic makes it more bearable than say Marrakech or Fes.

- Getting to Casablanca

By Air -- most people arrive in Casablanca at the Mohammed V international airport. It's a 45 minute taxi ride into the center of town, or you can catch a commuter train if you are on a budget (terminal 1). There are direct flights from the US (Royal Air Moroc), South Africa, Australia and the Middle East . Flights are plentiful from every major European capital. Regional flights from Dakar are also frequent and you'll discover that Casablanca is quite a hub for West African passengers going to and from the Americas.
By Train - Casablanca Voyageurs is the main train station in town, where you can catch a train to Fes, Marrakech, Rabat, Meknes, Asilah and Tangier. See my guide to Morocco Train Travel for details.
By Boat - Cruise ships dock at the port in Casablanca and often allow for a two night sojourn into Morocco. Most people will hop on a train to Marrakech or Fes, so just grab a taxi to the train station in the center of town, Casa Voyageurs (see above).
By Bus CTM long distance buses stop in several parts of the city, so make sure you know where your hotel is to get off at the right stop. Casablanca is the transport hub of Morocco, you can take a bus to anywhere in the country from here, most long-distance routes will depart early in the morning.

- Where to Stay in Casablanca

Unlike Marrakech, Fes or Essaouira, there are not a lot nice boutique hotels, or a tastefully decorated Riads in Casablanca. The upscale Hotel Le Doge does offer a great experience and a wonderful spa. For a less expensive more intimate experience, check out Dar Itrit.
If you're only spending a night in Casablanca, my personal choice is Hotel Maamoura. It's a very friendly, 3 star, Moroccan run hotel where a double room will set you back around USD 60. The hotel offers a simple breakfast, they organize early taxis to the airport and it's close to the main train station which is convenient if you're traveling to and from Marrakech or Fez. The Hotel les Saisons also offers a similar experience at a reasonable price.
For bland but predictable luxury, check out the Le Royal Mansour Meridien or the Hyatt Regency.

Neighborhoods:

In popular culture ! :

Casablanca is the setting of the 1942 film of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The film has achieved worldwide popularity since then. Nominated in eight categories, it won three Oscars.
A Night in Casablanca (1946) was the twelfth Marx Brothers' movie. The film stars Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx. It was directed by Archie Mayo and written by Joseph Fields and Roland Kibbee. The film contains the song "Who's Sorry Now?", with music by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It is sung in French by Lisette Verea playing the part of Beatrice Rheiner, and then later sung in English. Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" is played twice, once by Chico on piano as an intro to the "Beer Barrel Polka", and again by Harpo on the harp.
The city is featured in The Mysterious Caravan (1975), Volume 54 in the original Hardy Boys series.
Casablanca is the setting for several chapters in Doubleshot, a 2000 James Bond novel by Raymond Benson. In the novel, one of the characters mentions that the 1942 film was shot in Hollywood and not on location.
Casablanca is one of the key locations in the 2006 video game Dreamfall, as it is where the primary protagonist of the game, Zoë Castillo, lives. Although the city is imagined in the year 2219, much of the present day architecture is used for inspiration.

Marrakech - Vacations, travel tours, visits

7:25 AM
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- When you travel to Morocco the best places to visit include the imperial cities of Marrakech, Fes and Meknes. This is where you find wonderful bazaars, palaces and bustling town squares. Morocco is also famous for its beaches and some of the best seaside towns include Essaouira, Tangier and Asilah. Morocco also has natural beauty. You can hire a camel and trek through the Sahara; climb North Africa's highest peak; or stay in a traditional Kasbah in the fascinating Dades Valley.

-so let's talk about Marrakech city : =====>

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- Marrakesh – “Morocco City”, as early foreign travellers called it – has always been something of a marketplace where tribesmen and Berber villagers bring their goods, spend their money and find entertainment. At its heart is the Jemaa el Fna, an open space in the centre of the city, and the stage for a long-established ritual in which shifting circles of onlookers gather round groups of acrobats, drummers, pipe musicians, dancers, storytellers, comedians and fairground acts. The city’s architectural attractions are no less compelling: the magnificent ruin of the El Badi Palace, the delicate carving of the Saadian Tombs and, above all, the Koutoubia Minaret, the most perfect Islamic monument in North Africa.
It won’t take you long to see why Marrakesh is called the Red City. The natural red ochre pigment that bedecks its walls and buildings can at times seem dominant, but there’s no shortage of other colours. Like all Moroccan cities, it’s a town of two halves: the ancient walled Medina, founded by Sultan Youssef Ben Tachfine in the Middle Ages, and the colonial Ville Nouvelle, built by the French in the mid-twentieth century. Each has its own delights – the Medina with its ancient palaces and mansions, labyrinthine souks and deeply traditional way of life, and the Ville Nouvelle with its pavement cafés, trendy boutiques, gardens and boulevards.
Marrakesh has become Morocco’s capital of chic, attracting the rich and famous from Europe and beyond. Though the vast majority of its residents are poor by any European standard, an increasing number of wealthy foreigners are taking up residence and their influence on the tourist experience is evident.
Marrakesh has Berber rather than Arab origins, having developed as the metropolis of Atlas tribes. Once upon a time, it was the entrepôt for goods – slaves, gold, ivory and even “Morocco” leather – brought by caravan from the ancient empires of Mali and Songhay via their great desert port of Timbuktu. All of these strands of commerce and population shaped the city’s souks and its way of life, and even today, in the crowds and performers of the Jemaa el Fna, the nomadic and West African influence can still seem quite distinct.
Despite its size and the maze of its souks, Marrakesh is not too hard to navigate. The broad, open space of the Jemaa el Fna is at the heart of the Medina, with the main souks to its north, and most of the main sights within easy walking distance. Just west of the Jemaa el Fna is the unmistakable landmark of the Koutoubia Minaret, and from here, the city’s main artery, Avenue Mohammed V, leads out through the Medina walls at Bab Nkob and up the length of Guéliz, the downtown area of the Ville Nouvelle. You might want to consider hiring a guide to explore the Medina, but given a decent map, it really isn’t necessary.

* BRIEF HISTORY :

Marrakesh was founded near the beginning of Almoravid rule, by the first Almoravid dynasty ruler, Youssef Ben Tachfine, around 1062–70. It must at first have taken the form of a camp and market with a ksour, or fortified town, gradually developing round it. The first seven-kilometre circuit of walls was raised in 1126–27, replacing an earlier stockade of thorn bushes. These, many times rebuilt, are essentially the city’s present walls – made of tabia, the red mud of the plains, mixed and strengthened with lime.

-* THE GOLDEN AGE :

- Of the rest of the Almoravids’ building works, hardly a trace remains. The dynasty that replaced them – the Almohads – sacked the city for three days after taking possession of it in 1147, but they kept it as their empire’s capital.
With the 1184 accession to the throne of the third Almohad sultan, Yacoub el Mansour, the city entered its greatest period. Kissarias were constructed for the sale and storage of Italian and Oriental cloth, a new kasbah was begun, and a succession of poets and scholars arrived at the court. Mansour’s reign also saw the construction of the great Koutoubia Mosque and minaret.
By the 1220s, the empire was beginning to fragment amid a series of factional civil wars, and Marrakesh fell into the familiar pattern of pillage, ruination and rebuilding. In 1269, it lost its status as capital when the Fez-based Merenids took power, though in 1374–86 it did form the basis of a breakaway state under the Merenid pretender Abderrahman Ibn Taflusin.
Taking Marrakesh, then devastated by famine, in 1521, the Saadians provided a last burst of imperial splendour. Their dynasty’s greatest figure, Ahmed el Mansour, having invaded Mali and seized control of the most lucrative caravan routes in Africa, had the El Badi Palace – Marrakesh’s largest and greatest building project – constructed from the proceeds of this new wealth, and the dynasty also of course bequeathed to Marrakesh their wonderful mausoleum, the Saadian Tombs.

- MODERNS TIMES :

Under the Alaouites Marrakesh lost its status as capital to Meknes, but remained an important imperial city, and the need to maintain a southern base against the tribes ensured the regular presence of its sultans. But from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, it shrank back from its medieval walls and lost much of its former trade.
During the last decades prior to the Protectorate, the city’s fortunes revived somewhat as it enjoyed a return to favour with the Shereefian court. Moulay Hassan (1873–94) and Moulay Abd el Aziz (1894–1908) both ran their governments from here in a bizarre closing epoch of the old ways, accompanied by a final bout of frantic palace building. On the arrival of the French, Marrakesh gave rise to a short-lived pretender, the religious leader El Hiba, and for most of the colonial period it was run as a virtual fiefdom of its pasha, T’hami el Glaoui – the most powerful, autocratic and extraordinary character of his age.
Since independence, the city has undergone considerable change, with rural emigration from the Atlas and beyond, new methods of cultivation on the Haouz plain and the development of a sizeable tourist industry. After Casablanca, it’s Morocco’s second largest city, with slightly over a million inhabitants, and its population continues to rise. It has a thriving industrial area and is the most important market and administrative centre of southern Morocco.