Lisbon, Morocco, Spain: June 22-July 8, 2007
by Rick Swallow
Seville to Rabat, Morocco
Day 6 Our brief first-view of Tangier was limited to passing through customs and re-boarding our coach for the long drive to Rabat, the modern capital of Morocco. A short drive outside Tangier the Voice of America antenna farm is to be seen. It was in Tangier that we picked up our country guide, Rachid.
To the right (below) is pictured the front entrance to the Chellah Necropolis in Rabat, the walls of which were constructed in the mid 1300's atop ancient Roman walls.
Rabat is the modern capital of the Kingdom of Morocco. Its history goes back as far as the 3rd century BC. Moroccans are Berbers, not Arabs.
Inside the Necropolis, Rachid takes us for a short stroll to view some of the excavated Roman Ruins.
We stayed overnight in the Chellah Hotel in Rabat, probably the oldest of the "5-Star" hotels we stayed in on the tour, but quite adequate, overall. The bathroom is typical of all the bathrooms, European and African, in our hotels. Americans are always concerned with this aspect of tours and I include this shot to illustrate the conveniences and cleanliness of all our hotels. All included both a toilet and bidet.
The scene on the left below is a minaret close to our hotel. Note that minarets have three "spheres" at the top. To the right is a shot of the Royal Palace. I was not very impressed because we could not go inside and there was nothing especially noteworthy about the building itself. This was on our morning tour about town.
Next we made a visit to the thoroughly modern Mohammed V Mausoleum (Google it. It's new.), on the same locale as unfinished Hassan Tower (AD 1199). The tower
was intended to be the world's largest, but when the Sultan (Yacoub al-Mansour) died, construction stopped (left, below). The great earthquake of 1755 destroyed all
but the minaret. It has a sister tower (both designed by the same architect) the Giralda in Seville. I showed you that one previously at the Seville Cathedral. There,
however, the Spaniards added to the top to make it a bell tower. But I digress. Note the Atlantic in the background. As we travel down the coast on our way to
Marrakesh (or Marrakech), another beautiful mosque is seen, also right on the beach.
OH YEAH, MacDonald's is to be found even in Morocco (left, below) right on the edge of the Sahara Desert--and the Atlantic Ocean.
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