5 March 2023, Casablanca
Mehdi’s House R389.36 [DH200 room, DH20 bikes]

I do love a good mosque and Casablanca's premier tourist site, the extraordinary Hassan II mosque, does not disappoint. Completed in 1993, it took 10000 craftsmen working 24/7 just six years to complete. Most materials were sourced in Morocco, with a notable exception of 56 Murano chandeliers. There are 25 titanium doors, cedar wood carved ceilings, marble floors heated from beneath. It is the 7th largest mosque in the world with the 2nd tallest minaret in the world (210m). It can accommodate 25000 worshippers indoors and 80000 outside.
In the purification room below the mosque, where worshippers cleanse themselves before prayers, a special humidity-proof plaster of lime and egg yolk covers the pillars.
It is a peaceful haven beyond the mania of the market through which we walked to reach it.