Casablanca, Morocco – Technically Day 1 of the Tour

We join our tour group this evening, and this tour is following the normal G Adventures process of holding a meeting this evening at 6 followed by a group dinner at a nearby restaurant. The Chief Experience Officer (CEO – well, guide really) will make sure all our paperwork is in order and describe what the next 14 days will look like. He’ll cover some housekeeping things such as where is best to do laundry, where to exchange money, etc. And then we’ll be off for dinner. Great to be able to engage with our fellow travellers before setting off on our adventure tomorrow. Always interesting to see what countries the other travellers are coming from. We’ve already identified 3 – 4 of the other travellers just hanging out in the hotel for the past couple of days. Almost everyone adds on a day or two at the beginning of the tour.

After a proper nights sleep, we were up and out and in the taxi on the 10 – 15 min drive to the Mosque to catch the 10 am tour.

Tours were conducted in about 6 different languages, and took about 45 minutes. We toured the main prayer room and the ablutions area. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t learn more about the Muslim religion from our guide, although she did describe the ablutions process, a ceremonial act of washing parts of the body, as we toured that area which I’d never heard described before. And she did ask if we had any questions, but then you don’t know what you don’t know and what to ask sometimes.

The details about the Mosque seem to be a little fluid but certainly it’s an impressive building. Today we were told that it is the 3rd largest Mosque in the world, only surpassed by two in Saudi Arabia, one in Medina and one in Mecca. We were told yesterday it is the 4th largest and I’ve read that it is the 7th but the largest in Africa. It seems consistent that the minaret is the tallest in the world, or second tallest, at 265 meters or 210 metres and it houses an elevator to transport the person who does the call to prayer from the balcony of the minaret.

The architect was Frenchman Michel Pinseau, a non-Muslim friend of the King at the time. King Hassan II wanted to have something impressive built in Casablanca to help offer something for the growing tourism trade.

All the materials in the Mosque are from Morocco except the chandeliers, all 57 of them, which are Venetian Glass, and some pillars at the front of the main prayer hall which were from Italy as well.

The inside of the Mosque holds 25,000 people, 20,000 men on the main level and 5,000 women in balconies. In the courtyard of the Mosque an additional 80,000 can pray and during Ramadan it does get filled with worshipers.

It is relatively new and having seen the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, it certainly feels newer. It was built between 1987 and 1993 by approximately 10,000 craftsmen working around the clock in 3 shifts 24/7.

The guide said the cost had been estimated at $800 million US but she thought it was more likely 2 – 3 times that amount.

There are a couple of interesting, and I think unique, things about this Mosque. One is that it was built so that the roof can be opened up in good weather and it takes only 3 minutes to open and 2 minutes to close. You can see the light through the cedar ceiling and my thought was whether it leaked when it rained. It’s apparently used primarily when full, to provide some air circulation. 25,000 is a lot of people!

The second is that it is built partially on the water. King Hassan II said he wanted “to build this mosque on the water, because God’s throne was on water. Therefore the faithful who go there to pray, to praise the creator on firm soil, can contemplate God’s sky and ocean”. And according to different sources, there may or may not be windows in the floor through which you can see the ocean. I certainly didn’t see any. There were windows in the floor overlooking the ablutions area in the level below the prayer area however.

As you can see from the pictures the decor and craftsmanship are amazing. The tile-work is absolutely phenomenal, and was a highlight for me.

After our tour we decided to head out to walk along the seawall for a while. The mist had burned off by then and there was a little bit of a breeze. And I even found a lighthouse!

It was great to be by the ocean again. I still miss that. Well, “a while” turned in to 11 km and 16,800 steps, in 26 degrees with no shade. Thank goodness for sun screen, and for a mall at the end of the walk to cool down with a Coke Zero. We took a taxi back to the hotel!

Tomorrow our real adventure begins and we’re off for Fes and Meknes.