Rabat City Tour-Mausoleum of Mohamed V and Hassan Tower

Returning to Rabat, we dive even deeper into the past with a visit to Hassan Tower--the incomplete minaret of what was intended to be the larges mosque in the world, but whose construction was halted after the death of its founder, Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, a ruler of the Berber Muslim empire of the Maghreb (Berber north Africa from Morocco to Libya) and Iberia (Portugal, Spain and Andorra with small part of France) in 1199.

 The minaret is only half of its intended height of 260ft.  It was designed with ramps instead of stairs so that the muezzin (man who chants the call to prayer) could ride a horse to the top!

 Mosques in Morocco have only 1 minaret each, and those minarets are always four-sided, never round, per their Moorish roots.

The marble pillars inside the plaza are not original; they are from the Roman ruins of Volubilis, located to the east of Rabat on the way to Fes, but they give the visitor a sense of the scale of original design.

 And opposite the Tower of Hassan, we return to the present with the Mausoleum of Mohamed V, the grandfather of the current King, built by his son (the current King's father) Hassan II.  It was completed in 1971, and houses the tombs of Mohamed V, his son Prince Abdallah, and Hassan II since his death in 1999.

 The tomb is guarded on all four sides.

 The plaster work and calligraphy are extraordinary! Note the green tile on the roof of the adjacent mosque.  Green is the color of Islam (for fertility and life), and all mosques are tiled in green.

 Details of the walls and ceiling.  Typical (hardly!) of Moorish architecture, with carved and/or painted wood, plaster, and the intricate zellij (hand-chiseled mosaic) tile.

 A guard stands at each corner of the mezzanine overlooking King Mohamed V's tomb.  They wear the Moroccan colors of green (for Islam) and red (the color of the Moroccan soil).

 King Mohamed V's tomb. His sons' tombs are located on either side.