Rabat: Hassan Tower under wraps

In Rabat, the capital and seventh largest city of Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean, Sultan Yaqub al-Mansour built the city walls (the Casbah of the Udayas) and began construction on a mosque. His dream was for the mosque to be the largest in the world. However, Yaqub died and the construction stopped – and never continued. These ruins and the Hassan Tower remain.

The Hassan Tower (Hassan Tour) is the minaret of the incomplete mosque. Begun in 1195, the Sultan died in 1199. The tower is red sandstone at a height of 44 metres (140 feet). This is now under wraps. Visitors can still see some walls and about 200 columns that were constructed in the 12th century. Opposite the Hassan Tower is the Mausoleum of Mohammed V.

The site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995 in the Cultural category. In 2012 it was granted World Heritage status.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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