Kicking Back
Casablanca: Here's Looking At You
A fashionable and sophisticated city, Casablanca is where the familiar meets the exotic.
After a quiet year of tourism due to a terrorist attack downtown, Casablanca is once again seeing its tourist trade grow. As Morocco's economic and business capital, this seaside city is a lure for business travelers — but offers plenty of reasons to say "here's lookin' at you" when the workday is done.Unlike the imperial cities of Fes and Meknes or the desert city of Marrakech, Casablanca is a thoroughly modern community, a place where Europe meets Africa in terms of language, architecture and style. Modeled on Marseille, France, the largest port city in Morocco retains a cosmopolitan atmosphere, from its beach clubs to its high-rise hotels. A suburban sprawl at times makes the city feel a little too much like home; visitors have to do a little searching to seek out the medina, or old city, and palm-lined parks.
Although the French are responsible for much of the architecture today's guests see, Casablanca dates back to the days of the Phoenicians, who settled west of today's city in what is now the upscale suburb of Anfa. In the seventh century, they were joined by Arabs and all was fairly quiet until the 13th and 14th centuries when the port became a pirate hangout, the perfect spot from which to launch attacks on Spanish or Portuguese ships. It was the Portuguese who gave the city its name, which means “white house.”
Reminders of those early settlers are few, however, due to an earthquake that leveled the city in 1755. More than a century later, Arab merchants cleared the area and built the medina, a site that eventually grew into today's city of 4 million residents.
Casablanca (“Casa” if you want to sound like the locals) quickly grew into a financial capital, ranking as Africa's top center outside Johannesburg, South Africa. But it took a movie — filmed entirely in Hollywood — to bring the city to the attention of tourists. The 1942 Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman classic may have been filmed on the California back lots, but Casablanca keeps the tourists coming to see the city where the familiar and the exotic meet.
For many travelers, Casablanca is a home base from which to explore the Moroccan coast and acclimate before heading east to Marrakech, Fes and the Atlas Mountains; the city is home to Mohammed V International Airport (CMN), the country's largest. Those who begin or end their Morocco stay with a day or two in the city quickly find that Casablanca offers plenty of diversions.
The most recognized building in Casablanca is the Mosque of Hassan II, opened in 1993 at an estimated cost of $800 million. This waterside mosque welcomes up to 25,000 worshippers inside and another 80,000 in its courtyard. This is no ordinary mosque: Designed by French architect Michel Pinseau, it has taken its cue from the Koranic phrase "the throne of God lies on the water." Part of floor of this facility is glass so worshippers can kneel directly over the sea; above, a laser beam points to Mecca. Built on reclaimed land, the mosque features the country’s tallest minaret.
Guided tours of the mosque are available several times daily; it’s the only mosque in Morocco open to non-Muslims. Guests must be dressed modestly and must remove shoes before entering.
In contrast to this modern Arabic design, the buildings of downtown Casablanca are colonial French, many with baroque touches — not to mention some art deco and art nouveau buildings.
The heart of Casablanca, home to many of its most-viewed buildings, is Place des Nations Unies, a traffic roundabout from which the city flows, with the medina gate and its clock tower on one side.
A few years ago, a royal decree swapped the names of the Place des Nations Unies and the Place Mohammed V, the city's other primary center. Even today, some taxi drivers still refer to each by its old name, so extra explanations can be needed.
Adjacent to the Place des Nations Unies (the old Place Mohammed V) stands Casablanca's old medina and its modest souks, far smaller than the mazelike souks for which Marrakech and Fes are well-known. Here, haggling is the order of the day, whether it is for a rug, or leather babouches (soft slippers), or caftans, traditional women's apparel, or a djellaba, a long men's garment with a deep, pointed hood. The medina includes many scattered fruit and vegetable stands, but most rug vendors and other merchants are located on the southern exterior wall. The walls themselves are an attraction, with their gates, guard posts and ancient cannons; they stand in stark contrast to the adjacent modern Hyatt hotel.
