August 21st

Well, today was tourist sightseeing Casablanca. We went out and about this morning around 0730. (Yes, we did briefly walk by Rick's Cafe. It was not open.)

We started out going to Morocco's largest Mosque, third largest in the world, Hassan II Mosque. Coming to it- WOW!!! But we were on the back side. A guard helped us, “Go up and”… motioned right, “left”… motioned left. I said, “Yamin and shamal?”  He had big smile, corrected my pronunciation, but replied, “Yes.”  I think I made his morning. Anyway, we had to basically walk a block around it to get to the ticket area. Found it but had to wait “Five minutes” which usually means 10-15. Finally tickets in hand and with a group of about 30 people, we were escorted to the Mosque for a guided tour. As soon as we are allowed in we had to take off our shoes. The place is massive. It is so large the scale does not come across real well in pictures. We were split up into English, Italian, German,.. ect. Most of the people were in the English tour, even though English was not their first language. Our guide was a woman and she did speak English well, but with an accent. She listed a bunch of stats about the Mosque: tallest minaret in the world 200 meters; holds 25,000 people inside and 80,000 people outside. There were other stats but I won't get into them. The King wanted it build, and it was started in 1987 and completed in 1993- only six years!! Crazy! There were over 10,000 craftsmen working 24/7. Most everything used for construction – marble, wood, ect – is from Morocco. There are just a couple of exceptions: biggest one was the glass chandeliers; second was two white marble columns. Both exceptions are from Italy. The balconies where only women can pray are wood. We weren't allowed up there. We also weren't allowed in the minaret. Well, I asked and if you had $1100 for six people it could be arranged!!! “A VIP tour,” she called it. Needless to say- we did not qualify. Anyway, we were then taken down to the wash/cleaning area and told about the procedure done before you go to pray. This area is massive as well. It is under the main prayer area. Then we were lead back up and tour ended. The tour started around 0910 and lasted just under one hour. Jeff tipped our guide. We could look around some and take more pics, but we opted to go to the museum. It mostly went over some of the processes in making the plaster and doing other parts of the craftsmanship. We left the Mosque complex a bit overwhelmed. It is that big and grand.

Next we headed over to parts of the city where the buildings are Art Deco style. We found so many, most are not being kept up, but the “bones” are still there. The ones that are being maintained are usually owned by banks!! It was fascinating to imagine them in their heyday. We stopped midway to get lunch, well actually breakfast and lunch. We each had a loaded Shawarma plate. It was so good, and we both had combo meats- beef and chicken! Not just chicken, as was the case in Essaouira. After lunch finished the walking tour, and came back to our hotel- discovering it was an Art Deco design also! Siesta time!

We went back out and about at 630pm. Trekked back over to the Mosque area. There is a lighthouse around it. I did not mention the Mosque was built half jutting over the ocean! During construction they actually built a huge earthen dam to hold back the water, proceeded with the foundation of Mosque, then removed the dam. Anyway, back to the lighthouse, it is around a bowl part of the shore from the Mosque. It is a pretty tall one, but not open to climb it. A guy standing there said he keeps it clean,and went into a listing of facts. There does seem to be a Fresnel lens in the top. Now we worked our way back toward the Mosque for sunset pictures. The setting sun's rays made the gold glisten and really pop. It was– Spectacular!! Today was the King's Birthday, so there were quite a few out enjoying as well. We reluctantly most go back to our hotel for our last night in Morocco!!