What to see in Rabat, an itinerary to discover the ancient imperial city surrounded by walls, including the main monuments and places of interest.
Tourist information
Capital of Morocco, Rabat is located between the Atlantic Ocean coast and the left bank of the Bou Regreg river.
This city, which forms a single urban agglomeration with Salé, a town located on the opposite bank of the river, consists of a part corresponding to the Medina and the Casba, as well as a built-up area designed and built under the French protectorate from 1912 to 1930.
For the balance between the urban plan of the modern city and the preservation of its many previous urban strata, Rabat is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Surrounded by mighty walls, Rabat in fact preserves precious testimonies of the civilizations that have settled there over the centuries.
Its origins date back to an ancient fortification located near a previous Roman colony, although it was officially founded by the Almohads in 1150 and fortified at the end of the twelfth century by Al-Mansur.
What see
From this period is the Great Mosque called Hassan, whose imposing construction suffered an interruption during the works and a destruction caused by the 1755 earthquake.
Few remains and the minaret of the same name, with a lower height than the initial project.
The walls and the Casba degli Oudaia date back to the same period, the fortified district, connected to the rest of the city by the monumental Bab el Oudaia gate, located on a rocky outcrop from the top of which you can admire a splendid panorama of the ocean and the overlooking Salé. .
Of particular interest is the necropolis of Chellah, which stands on the site of the ancient city of Sala Colonia, an important Roman port previously frequented by Phoenician and Carthaginian navigators.
The necropolis includes important traces of the Roman settlement, to which Islamic architecture was superimposed, especially from the Merinid era.
