Most of the sights in Rabat are pretty easy to get to by taxi, tram, or walking.
Chellah, an old Roman outpost, is perched on the hillside, just above the river, Bou Regreg. The ruins are mostly made up of battered foundations and column remnants. However, there is plenty of signage indicating where buildings once stood, like the grain store and public baths. After the Romans left, the city was maintained and improved by the Merenid dynasty, installing the decorative entrance gate and ramparts.
In addition to the ruins, you may notice quite a few storks perched along the walls. Just make sure you aren’t standing directly underneath one, else you risk leaving with a bird surprise on your clothes or worse, in your hair.
Just after the sanctuary area there is a pool with eels, which supposedly possess magical abilities. I read that people will throw food to the eels in exchange for wishes, but I’m not sure you are actually supposed to throw anything into the pool. While I was walking by, a man threw something into the pool, and a grounds keeper quickly got into a heated discussion about whatever it was the first man threw in. So, my suggestion would be to look and not throw anything!
On your way back up from the ruins, you’ll pass along the gardens, with palm trees and assorted flora. If you look closely, you will even see a tree, which looks like a dragon!
The Kasbah des Oudayas, just outside the old medina, in the northeast corner, is the old Fort for the city of Rabat. Wandering through the streets, I admired the white and indigo painted walls and doors. My guide informed me that old superstitions lived on in the old city, and that the indigo color is believed to keep bad luck away. The hand of Fatima, a protection symbol, is also used as an ornamental doorknocker of many houses.
Not too far within the winding alleyways of the Kasbah, my guide made a stop at a local bread bakery. The bakery’s services extend beyond just providing baked goods for sale. They also bake bread people in the community bring to them. As many local people in the Kasbah do not have ovens in their houses, they send their bread to bakeries. Sorted by family, the bread is baked in wood fire ovens. Someone from the family would then stop by later in the day to collect the bread. I was pretty surprised to hear that the going rate for the circular loaves of bread is only 2 DH ($0.20 US) a piece.
Leaving the Kasbah, my next stop was the Mohammed V Masoleum and the Hassan Tower.
In the 12th century, construction began on the Hassan Tower and mosque. The ruling leader at the time, Yaqoub al Mansour, planned for the mosque to be the most magnificent in the Muslim world, but construction was abandoned after his death. The structure you see today is what survived the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
In most other locations, you should resist the urge to take pictures of military and police personnel stationed outside government buildings. But, at the Mohammed V Mausoleum, you can take pictures of the guards at the building entrances and mounted on horseback around the walled entrances.
The Mausoleum is the burial place of King Mohammed V, along with sons, King Hassan II and Prince Moulay Abdallah. Looking down from the terraced walkway, King Mohammed V’s coffin is centrally located. But don’t forget to look up and around, as the ceiling and mosaic tiled walls are quite extraordinary as well.
Around the Kasbah and Mausoleum, I encountered quite a few women offering to draw henna designs on my hand. They can be very persistent. I had one woman follow me through a section of the Kasbah Gardens, “just a small design on your palm” over and over again. It can be very frustrating, especially when you are trying to take in the sights. I had the most luck with either firmly saying “No, thank you” in French or Arabic (Non merci/La shukran) and walking away to another spot or ignoring them altogether. I used these methods throughout my trip when dealing with persistent street vendors.
