I don’t have a lot to say about Rabat. We arrived yesterday afternoon, and we are leaving early tomorrow morning. Today we had a bit of a walking tour of the Kasbah, and we visited a monument and two museums. And I did some walking on my own.
It seems like a nice city. It is relatively clean and tidy, and it seems liveable. But compared to the other places I’ve been so far in Morocco, it doesn’t measure up.
Check out my photos, and see if you agree.
Kasbah and Medina
Like Chefchaouen and Tetouan and Tangier, the old city of Rabat goes back many hundreds of years. But unlike those other cities, Rabat’s medina seems organized, laid out in a grid rather than a tangle, with wider streets. It would be hard to get lost here. For me, Rabat lacks the charming, chaotic randomness of those cities. And all the buildings are white. It feels whitewashed.
Riad Kalaa, where we are staying, is a complete delight, with all the character I’ve come to expect from riads. My room is actually on two levels, with a seating area on the first level and bed and bathroom up a narrow staircase. I’m right off the courtyard, as are many of the other rooms. It’s probably my favorite place we’ve stayed so far.
Mausoleum and Hassan Tower
After our walking tour and a visit to the National Museum of Adornment, which displays traditional jewelry and costumes and was nice enough, we drove to the Hassan Tower and Mausoleum of Mohammed V, grandfather of the current king, Mohammed VI. The tower dates from 1199; it is a minaret that was built for a mosque that was never completed. It was nice. You can see the photo at the top of this page. I liked how the columns of the incompleted mosque fill the plaza. It reminded me of the Mezquita in Córdoba. I imagine that if this mosque had ever been built (and I have no idea why it wasn’t), it might have looked similar.
The Mausoleum is extremely ornate.
Museum of Modern Art
We were supposed to visit the Royal Palace, but for some reason it was closed to visitors, so instead we had a choice of two museums, an archaeological museum or the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern Art, which is what I opted for, and which was the highlight of my visit to Rabat. Although there was very little Moroccan art, I thought the exhibits were fascinating and impressive. I won’t post photos here, but I took a number of pictures, which you can find in my photo album.
And that’s about all I can say about Rabat.
Tomorrow we head to Fez.
Joy Sherman
I really liked the courtyard in the riad. I think that was you on the left at the far end of the table. It looked like your friendly, enthusiastic smile!