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La Tour Hassan
Hotel
Founded in 1914 in the
Hispano-Moresque style, La Tour Hassan Meridien has recently being renovated.
The hotel offers 139 rooms with all amenities and is ideally located in the city
centre. It offers excellent conference and leisure facilities, two restaurants
and two bars.
Ideally located right in the centre of the city (and only 15 mins from the
airport) near the administrative and diplomatic area, the hotel (part built in
1914) has been recently renovated, but has jealously kept its Moorish style,
with its Andalous house, gardens and fountains. The hotel reflects perfectly the
rich mixture of the Moroccan way of life, pride in its history and culture.
Rabat, There is
blue everywhere. The intense blue of the sky and the sea. And, nestling
within the
protection of the ochre-colored ramparts, a gleaming white city and a
minaret (tower) that reaches up to touch the clouds: this is Rabat, the
capital of Morocco. Rabat has a long history as a capital city. In the
XIIth century, Yacoub el-Mansour, the great Almohades conqueror chose it
to be the symbol of his splendor.
But history had already been made at Rabat. The Marinades (XIIIth and
XIVth century) honored the city by making it the site of the Chellah
necropolis, building on
the ruins of the ancient Roman town of
Sale.
History has left its mark upon Rabat, and Rabat honors those who made
it. As Yacoub el-Mansour is honored with the Hassan tower, dominating
what should have been one of the greatest mosques in the Muslim world,
or the mausoleum of the late King Mohammed V, architect of Moroccan
independence in 1956 and the imposing Royal Palace, residence of the
king and seat of the government since 1912.
THE KASBAH OF THE OUDAYA
History stops in Rabat and does not leave. It appears on the corner of
an alley, in a stall of oriental slippers and poufs fragrant with the
scent of leather, in a carpet auction. It impregnates every stone of the
Oudaya Kasbah, fortress of indomitable Andalous Corsairs of XVII
century. Nothing is more pleasurable than imagining their exciting
lives, delightfully installed at the Moorish coffee, savoring gazelle
horns (Moroccan cake) with a mint tea, looking at the boats which dance
in the Bou Regreg river at the bottom of the Sale city ramparts.
THE KING MOHAMMED V MAUSOLEUM
Here, everything is luxury and sophistication. The traditional Moroccan
art is put on exhibit : under a gilt cupola made of mahogany and Lebanon
cedar, arises the Royal sarcophagus of Pakistani white onyx (marble).
THE NECROPOLIS OF
CHELLAH
Situated on the site of the ancient city
of Sale, the Necropolis is located 2 km from the city center. Passing
through the lovely door, you will discover a site overtaken by an
exuberant vegetation. You can distinguish tombs and a stone basin where
there are fish and sacred turtles.
It was fed by a miraculous source where, according to legend, a golden
fish lived. Further on, a minaret has partly maintained its multicolored
decor. It is occupied now by storks. |
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