Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco with a population of approx. 7 million. Modelled after Marseille in France it is the countries commercial hub and gateway to the world. I watched the film Casablanca on my flight to Casablanca. Although the film was shot completely on a set in LA there is some historical accuracy to the film. Portugal remained neutral during WWII and Lisbon became the last free port offering air and sea passage to England and the Americas for refugees fleeing Nazi held Europe. Although Spain was also technically “neutral” passage across Spain was treacherous as Franco was cooperating with the Nazi’s. So many refugees choose to travel to North Africa and then seek passage to Lisbon from the port of Casablanca.
There is a Rick's cafe in Casablanca for fans of the film which is located near the Hassan II Mosque.

Getting to the mosque proved a bit challenging, I had met three of my tour mates at breakfast and we had all decided we wanted to visit the mosque. Our hotel had advised we just needed to go and hail a cab from the main street, however this was easier said than done. Each city in Morocco has a petit taxi service. Which is a small car painted in the designated colour of the city it services. The petit taxi's in Casablanca are painted red. The taxi system in Morocco allows the driver to pick up extra passengers along the way. So if he has one passenger in his car and he still has two vacant seats he can stop to pick up other passengers along the way. Petit taxi's however can take a maximum of three people and as we were four we needed a grand taxi. The thing is grand taxi are normally used for city-to-city or village transport, not for local city traffic so finding a grand taxi who could take us to the mosque took awhile.

The Hassan II Mosque is one of the world’s largest mosques, it can accommodate 25,000 worshipers inside and a further 80,000 in the courtyards. The mosque was commissioned by the late King Hassan II to commemorate his 60th birthday. It was designed by French architect Michel Pinseau and is a stunning piece of architecture, it rises above the ocean on a rocky outcrop reclaimed from the sea, echoing a verse from the Quran that God’s throne was built upon the water. It has a retractable roof, heated floors and a section of clear glass flooring where worshipers can see the ocean below. It also has a lazer light on top of the minaret that points the way to Mecca each night.

Lunch after visiting the Mosque was at Restaurant Etoile Centrale which was a beautifully decorated Moroccan restaurant. I had a chicken and almond pastilla A pastilla is a pie which combines sweet and savoury flavours. It was traditionally made with pigeon (squab) however these days chicken is used as a more ready ingredient.