A few days after arriving in the Morrocan capital, I had started to settle in and get more familiar with the city.
The backbone of the public transport system – the tram – isn’t too difficult to understand as there are only two lines and they follow the same route for quite a bit of the distance.
A thing that didn’t fail to keep surprising me is just how many stray cats the city has, though. The more residential areas and especially the Medina, the city’s historical center, are filled with cats just freely roaming the streets.
If there’s one thing to do in Rabat that I’d really recommend to anyone who is going to stay in the city, is to try and shop in the Medina at least once, if not most of the time. The Medina is the old city center, built in the middle ages, and is made up of a maze of narrow roads that go all over the place. You shouldn’t rely on Google maps or really any map when navigating through the Medina; much rather, if you have a good sense of orientation, try to rely on that, and if not, just follow the flow of the people.
As I said above, try shopping in the Medina. People sell things along most of the main roads of the Medina, and usually each road has its own type of goods for sale. For example, one road may have fruits and vegetables, the next one spices, the next one live chicken and fresh meat, and again another one may have plastic or clothing. Most of the people that live in this area of town rarely have to leave it, because you can get pretty much anything you need from within the city walls of the Medina.
There is one main road stretching through the center of the Medina from the North to the South, along which you will find a couple hole-in-wall restaurants and, if you’re lucky, a couple stands selling freshly pressed sugar cane juice. I sometimes went to a small restaurant that sold a mix of burgers, falafel, shwarma and fries and must say that it is certainly a worthy low-budget alternative to more expensive places you may find in the Agdal area.
Keep in mind that the Medina is a residential area and real people live there, who may not be too please to be disturbed by a bunch of tourists. Especially since Rabat isn’t a very touristy city, people may not be comfortable with you being around, and if you are walking through a quieter, residential part of the Medina people, especially older women, may gesticulate you to leave. Also don’t take photos of people that don’t want their photo taken – especially women – and make it clear that indeed you aren’t taking photos by pointing your camera down or putting on the lens cap.
The Sunset of Rabat is nothing too amazing most of the time; usually the dust of the Sahara desert gets blown away towards the east, but if the winds happen to blow to the west once in a while, the sky can have rich, red colors. Fotos of Tour Hassan are probably best shortly before and during sunset, as there are less people, but also good lighting. Make sure to arrive a bit earlier, while there is still enough sunlight, to visit the Mausoleum of Mohammed V which is opposite of the Tour Hassan.
Rabat is a city at the Atlantic Ocean, and it does have a couple beaches where you can swim and surf if the weather is warm enough. Occasionally, if there is a storm somewhere out on the Atlantic, the waves can get quite big, crashing against the pier as up to 6 meter large breakers. Usually, the life guards will close off the pier in these conditions, but sometimes they will leave it open during low tide. Nonetheless, you should use increased caution and stay away from the sides should you decide to venture along the rocks, and it is probably best to leave behind anything you don’t want to get soaked.
Opposite of the beach, you will find the massive Martyr’s cemetery. A lot of the Moroccan elite is buried here, including politicians, military commanders, and religious leaders. Though the cemetery is on the left side of the road when facing the ocean, there are some graves on the right-hand side as well. The approach to graveyards seems to be a bit different from ours, though, as I have on several occasions seen people picnic or do morning exercise there.
Then there’s the Kasbah, a “city in the city” which was built in the 12th century and houses Rabat’s oldest Mosque. The fortification is located at a strategically important spot, overlooking the river Oued Bou Regreg where it flows into the Atlantic ocean, and hence used to guard the harbor from Pirates and enemy fleets. Similarly to the Medina, it is a maze of narrow roads within the walls of the city, and it can be quite easy to get lost – Google Maps won’t help you much. It is probably easiest to try and orientate yourself with the help of the direction of the ocean. The Kasbah is well-known for the walls of the narrow paths being painted blue, and the many little and artfully decorated doors. The Kasbah has a lot less going on in the streets than the Medina, and is mainly residential.
When you’re at Tour Hassan, take a few minutes and go up the stairs to the white building that is guarded by guards in ceremonial uniforms and has a small crowd of people around it. This is the Mausoleum of Mohammed the V. The building contains the tombs of King Mohammed the V. as well as those of his two sons, King Hassan the II. and Prince Abdallah. The building was completed in 1971.
If you get the chance to enter inside a mosque, absolutely seize the opportunity. The Islamic architecture, well known for its use of geometric shapes, symmetry and mathematics, is absolutely breathtaking. I had the luck of seeing the inside of the Ashohada Mosque, and I think the photos speak for themselves.
Rabat is, in a strange way, both a city that is oddly European and also so very different from anything in the “western” world. There certainly is a lot to be discovered if you leave your comfort zone and venture out of the area that your temporary residence is located in, go grocery shopping in the markets of the Medina or get surprised by big waves at the Atlantic coast. For the capital of a country that doesn’t necessarily have the cleanest of human rights records, it is certainly a very modern yet diverse and inviting city, and, not least thanks to the comparatively small number of tourists, certainly one worth visiting.