Casablanca

The Cabaret Le Don Quichotte. Due to the French occupation, nearly all signs, bill boards, menus and such are in both Arabic and French. Due to the previous Spanish influence over Morocco, Spanish is readily understood and spoken. The Arabic is a Moroccan "dialect" and children are taught standard Arabic in school as a second language.

The Medina now occupies the oldest part of Casablanca. It is a collection of themed markets (souks) selling just about everything from spices to mobile phones. This shop sold ceramics. The conical pots are Tagines in which a staple food of the Moroccan diet is cooked. Many of our meals started with Harira (a chickpea soup) and continued with a main dish of chicken, lamb or beef Tagine.

The Grand Mosque of Hassen II. This is the second largest Mosque in the world, second only to the mosque in Mecca. The mosque has been built out from the natural shoreline on a reclaimed embankment in deliberate fulfillment of the Koranic verse, "The throne of God was built on the water."

The mosque was built by the king at a cost of $750 million, entirely funded by donations from the people of Morocco. Its minaret is 600 feet tall. The prayer hall encloses 22 acres (3 times the size of St. Paul's Cathedral). It has a movable roof which can be retracted to flood the mosque with sunlight.

The marble to build the mosque was imported from Italy and is intricately designed and carved. This is a place where the pictures truly do not do it justice. We literally spent hours walking around it stunned by its beauty.

In the hot bright sun, these covered walkways provide shade during the heat of mid-day. Even the ceilings are intricately decorated with inlaid marble designs.

The embankment on which it is built is raised above the natural level of the land and paved in marble. Standing on this vast marble platform, the mosque in front of you, gives the sense of being in another world, close to the sky, close to God.