Today I finally made my way over to the Hassan Tower complex. It's one of Rabat's biggest landmarks, and truly, I can see the tower from the roof of the riad in the medina and from other high points in the city. So finding it wasn't hard. I just kept walking in the general direction, and then, suddenly, there it was, just down the street. It was built in the 13th century, and the tower was meant to be one third higher than it is, and would have been the second largest mosque in the world at that time. But the king died, and and construction was halted, and later an earthquake did some damage to it. On the grounds, though, there is the mausoleum of King Mohammed V, the grandfather of the current king, who was apparently a wise and effective leader as Morocco emerged from being a French protectorate in the 1950s and into the Kingdom that it is today. So here are some photos from the afternoon. And by the way, I am reducing the quality of the photos that I'm putting on the blog. The previous uploads were taking about 5 minutes per photo, and today they aren't loading at all. So I apologize for the lesser quality of photo, but you will still get the idea, and I can get the blog completed!! The tower from the entrance park. Guards on horseback by the entrance to the plaza. (Everyone wants a photo with them, and they are happy to do it!) Mausoleum, looking from the main plaza. Not sure what these are, but they are on the corners of the Mausoleum site. Guards at the entrances of the tomb-- and everyone wants a photo here, too. An almost solitary guard. Plaza fountain, though I guess because it's winter, none of the fountains were working. I think these were the foundations of the complex that was never built. It would have been ginormous. People were climbing and standing on these columns, and some were trying to make photos of the Tower like when people look like they are "holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa. These cute girls were happy to have me snap their picture. I will head back in sunnier, hotter weather to catch the fountains in action. They are beautiful! The architecture is lovely; this is part of the mausoleum complex.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Marcie StutzmanTeacher, Researcher, Adventurer, Explorer; Maybe crazy; Possibly too old for this Archives
October 2018
|