: Built on the sea, translation of the Coran verse that proclaims God’s throne was built upon water. The mosque is a truly marvelous piece of architecture. Huge monument, it can accomodate 25.000 worshipers inside and 80.000 more outside. The founder, King Hassan II, desired for the city to be endowed with a large, fine building of which it can be proud until the end of time. The mosque’s most exquisite examples of Moroccan craftsmanship are the blankets of zellij, some designs more than 10m high. The mosque is one of the world’s largest.

the spirit of the movie Casablanca is alive and well in downtown. Madam Rick, an American woman who had lived in Morocco, had restored a multilevel former medina residence to resemble the era depicted in the movie, dominated by a central courtyard with its authentic 1930’s Pleyel piano.

Casablanca’s seaside suburb runs along the Atlantic coastline, with a long beach side promenade called the corniche. There you can see Casablanca in all its contrasting beauty

the city’s origins trace back to the medieval town of Anfa. the French protectorate administration chose the seaside to build magnificent villas serving as residence for their army high officers and walthy merchants. Many of these villas are still splendid and serve nowdays as principal residences for wealthy Moroccans. Anfa Hotel , where a secret and historic conference took place in 1943, a crucial moment of the 2nd world war, when the 2 men fixed the date and the modalities of the Normandy landing in June 1944.

or United Nations square in some planes : administrative center of Casablanca with very beautiful buildings designed in the 1920’s by a french architect. The square is bordered by the Wilaya ( main government office ) flanked by a tower with clock; the courthouse; a beautiful musical and luminous fountain (at night) around which hundreds of pigeons come to eat the grains offered by the visitors and drink the fountain water.

Catholic Parish church built in 1954, especially frequented by the faithful of Africans from Sub-Sahara. It is decorated with very beautiful stained glass windows made by the famous Artist Gabriel Loire

New medina of Casablanca with souks ( markets ) built by the French on the beginning of the century ( nowdays specialized in tradional Moroccan costumes ) with the appearence of a traditional medina : narrow alleys, small squares lined with trees, stone arches. There we can see the Royal palace which is certainly the most beautiful monument in the city with an Arab-Muslim style, while being very modern