Rabat

Rabat lies on the Atlantic coast in north-western Morocco.¹ From the Kasbah of the Oudayas there is a view over the medinas of Rabat and Sale, the coast and the mouth of the Bou Regreg.² In 2024 the municipality of Rabat had exactly 509,916 inhabitants; it belongs to the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region.³

In 2012 UNESCO inscribed Rabat on the World Heritage List under criteria ii and iv; the protected area covers 348.59 hectares.⁴ It includes the new town laid out between 1912 and the 1930s, with administrative and residential districts and the Jardin d'Essais, as well as older quarters, some of which go back to the 12th century.⁵

The Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur began the Hassan Mosque in 1184; building continued until shortly before his death in 1199, and it was never completed.⁶ Its enclosing walls form a rectangle of 183.12 by 139.32 metres and enclose 25,512 square metres.⁷ The minaret, the Hassan Tower, is 16.20 metres along each side and now stands 45.60 metres high; about 85 metres had been planned.⁸

At the edge of the field of columns stands the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, built between 1961 and 1969.⁹ Mohammed V was transferred here in 1971; the tombs of Moulay Abdallah (1983) and King Hassan II (1999) were added later.¹⁰ A second dome opposite houses a museum of the history of the Alaouite dynasty covering 1,500 square metres.¹¹

The Almohad city wall was also built under Yaqub al-Mansur and was probably completed in 1197.¹² It is 5,189 metres long, encloses 450 hectares and is reinforced by 74 towers.¹³ Together with the Hassan Mosque, the walls and gates are all that remains of the planned Almohad capital.¹⁴

The Kasbah of the Oudayas, on a rocky promontory above the river mouth, is the oldest core of Islamic Rabat; remains of an Almoravid fort were uncovered in 2001 and 2002.¹⁵ Its main gate, Bab Lakbir, goes back to Yaqub al-Mansur, and the mosque inside was founded in 1150 under Abd al-Mumin.¹⁶ From 1609 Moriscos expelled from Andalusia settled here.¹⁷ The Andalusian Garden on the site of the former Méchouar was designed by Maurice Tranchant de Lunel.¹⁸

The former princely residence in the kasbah is a museum.¹⁹ Since 9 January 2023 the National Museum of Adornment (Musée national de la parure) has shown Moroccan jewellery there, including Amazigh jewellery from the collection of King Mohammed VI.²⁰ The Musée Mohammed VI is the country's first museum devoted entirely to modern and contemporary art; it holds more than 500 paintings.²¹ The Museum of History and Civilisations, reopened in 2017, shows finds from prehistory to the Islamic period, including Roman bronzes from Volubilis.²²

Chellah is the ancient city of Sala, already mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela; the excavated remains include Mauretanian temples, a forum and a capitol.²³ On its ruins the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub established a dynastic burial ground in 1285.²⁴ Abu al-Hasan enlarged it and in 1339 surrounded it with a pentagonal wall that encloses 7 hectares and is 6 to 7 metres high.²⁵

The Al Boraq high-speed train stops at Rabat Agdal on the line between Casablanca and Tangier.²⁶ King Mohammed VI inaugurated the new Rabat-Agdal station, with 23,000 square metres of floor space, on 17 November 2018.²⁷ Since May 2011 a tram has linked Rabat with Sale; today it has two lines, 43 stops and 27 kilometres of route.²⁸ Rabat-Salé airport has no station of its own; the nearest is in Sale, 8 kilometres away.²⁹