Our guide in Casablanca, whose name I couldn’t possibly spell, let’s call him Ali for short …
… turns out to be completely blind. Novel for a guide! To be fair, he did have a minder to help him get about, but he just seemed to know where he was all the time. Very impressive! And, as he said, his eyes didn’t work, but his voice did!
According to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, there are around 41,800 mosques in Morocco. And over fifty of these are to be found in Casablanca! Plenty of praying opportunities! We stopped at one of the two largest mosques in town. The Hassan II Mosque. This is the second largest functioning mosque in Africa and is the 14th largest in the world. Its minaret is the world’s second tallest at 210 metres (689 ft). Complete with three globes on the top of the minaret representing the three elements – water, earth and fire.
Some magnificent examples of the tiled decorations…
We were given a “Welcome to Africa” drink (coke, lemonade, sprite or water!). This was at the totally, inappropriately named, Hotel Belleriv. Enough said about that!
… and then on into the historic central part of town, and the olive market, where our guide pointed out a special (traditional?) door knocker. We’ve seen this before, but didn’t know it had a name. “The Hand of Fatima.”
The name comes from Mohammed’s daughter Fatima. The five fingers represent the five pillars of Islam but it’s mainly a symbol used for protection and as defence to ward off the “Evil Eye”. The “Evil Eye” is a curse believed to be cast by an evil glare, which is usually directed towards a person who is unaware of what’s going on!
The olive Market sells …
… er, well, olives, mainly! Lots of them – and they are delivered by kayak …
Maybe! Or maybe not! (For the record the sign actually says “Stop”.)
How we managed not to lose anyone in our half hour wandering around the historic centre and market, is anyone’s guess. Leaving the maze of streets of the old town, we had a fleeting drive-by of a second large mosque, the Mohamed VI Mosque. The minaret here is crowned with five balls. These represent the Five Pillars of Islam: Faith, Prayer, Alms, Fasting and Pilgrimage (hajj) (As also seen in Fatima’s fingers, above).
These balls can neatly just NOT be seen on this photo! But it’s not my photo, and you just can’t get the staff to do it right!
We did a drive-by of Rick’s Café Americain.
The gin-joint owned by the bitter and cynical Rick Blaine (Bogart) in the movie, “Casablanca”, was an upscale nightclub and gambling den.
… and we were back off to the ship.
Leaving port at sunset we get another great view of the Hassan II Mosque and minaret…
Tomorrow (in “blog-time!!!) It’s a visit to Cadiz and the White Villages of Andalusia… And the decision to extend the cruise!
I agree, the tile and plaster decoration in Islamic building is indeed magnificent. It’s geometric nature and patterns appeal to me immensly.
If that’s only the 14th largest mosque in the world, the others must be enormous. Love the tile decorations- very colourful. This cruise is a very long one- it seems to have been weeks since you left the UK?