Casablanca

Morocco

A country of 42 million people, Morocco is a very progressive Sunni Moslem country ruled by a constitutional monarch. The King is hereditary but some of the government is elected. The King appoints the ministers in charge of the key ministries. While the Moslem style of dress is very evident, a wide variety of dress is quite acceptable although woman should generally keep their shoulders, midriff and knees covered and men wear long trousers. 

Women are free to work, mix with men etc, although old habits change slowly in the countryside and small villages. 60% of the population is under 20, so population growth will be an issue for some years yet!

There are large areas of fertile and very productive land that receives good and reliable winter and spring rain. Crops like barley, wheat, chick peas, oranges and olives are widely grown. Some areas even grow grapes and produce wine – strange in a Moslem country.

The climate is quite temperate along the Atlantic coast (think Northland or a little warmer) but gets hotter and drier further inland. The Atlas mountains rise to about 4000 m high and get considerable snow in the winter time

The history is rich. The Phoenicians traded with coastal cities. The Romans controlled large parts of the country to grow grain and wine and olive oil for Rome. The present ruling dynasty has been in control (most of the time) for 5-600 years. The French were very involved in the administration of the country from 1912 until 1956. The French influence is still very strong.

The population is 60% Berber, the first nation people, with the balance being mainly Arabic but with a strong Spanish influence in the north and African influence in the south.

The main languages are Arabic, Berber and French.

Casablanca


A town of 7 million people on the west (Atlantic) coast of Morocco. It is a modern ‘second world’ city – it has a lot of the signs and trappings of a first world city – the first large bill board I saw was advertising Maserati cars – but it has many of the signs of the third world – beggars, weedy streets, unmaintained buildings. There are many slums areas on the outside of the sity where people from the countryside have come in search of work.

The Old Medina, the old city centre, was really fascinating. Narrow lanes, crowds of people, colourful market stalls.


Vegetable stall in the old Medina, Casablanca

The narrow lanes and stall in the old Medina, Casablanca




The Hassan II Mosque, built in 4 years from 1986, is the third largest mosque in the world. It will hold 105,000 people (20,000 men and 5,000 women inside and 80,000 outside). Its minaret is 200 m tall. The detailed mosaics are beautiful and amazing. The amount of work that went into them is huge. It took 10,000 people, working in shifts 24 hours/day, to build it.



 

The room where worshippers was before entering the temple

The forecourt can hold 80,000 worshippers. 450m long. Supposedly bigger than St Peters square in the Vatican

The mosaics right through the Mosque are incredible




Each piece of the mosaic behind Joanne is individually placeed



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Atlas Mountains and Desert in Morocco

Image
Inland Morocco As we left Chefchaueon we headed into the various ranges of the Atlas mountains. The most surprising aspect of this transition was the green and productive valleys  running through the yellow-brown and red-brown eroding hills. Berbers 60% of Moroccans are Berber. they are a first nation people who have originally been nomadic herders. Some still keep to that lifestyle. Others have settled into farming the fertile valleys. Others are moving to the cities for education and jobs. Schooling is gradually coming to the remoter areas and even to the nomads, although only 3 years of education is compulsory at this stage Morocco - Photographing People A common belief amongst the Moroccans, particularly the village Berber people is that if you take their photo it steals their soul. Our guide, who was a Berber, stressed that we should not take photos without asking permission. In several cases, particularly with older villagers, he would not even ask....
Read more

Northern Morocco

Image
From Casablanca we travelled north to Rabat, Meknes, Volibulis, Chefchaouen and then back to Fes. The main towns had centuries of history - Rabat was a trading port used by the Pheonicians in the 300's BC, Mouyard Issidra was started in 860's, Meknes has parts of the town dating from 1100's, 1400's and 1700's and Vulubilis was built by the Romans in 200's AD. The countryside was impressive. Reasonably dry near the coast but  large areas of rolling fertile land growing wheat, barley, sunflower, olives, oranges with areas of forestry on the ranges. No wonder the Romans used it as a grain growing area to feed Rome. Trader in the Medina selling nuts, lentils, beans and dried fruit. Add caption The old part of Meknes - built in 11th century. the satellite dishes tell the story of the old and the new. In the old Medina in Fes, their are 9000 alleys. (The joke the guides tell is they lost someone last year and they are still searchin...
Read more