Monday 10 August 2009

King Hassan II Mosque







I've just been on a month's holiday with my family to Morocco. It's such a beautiful country with so many beautiful places to see. One of the thing that I'v e noticed was that their architecture was so remarkable. They have some of the most beautiful mosques I have ever seen. The most famous one I visited in casablanca was the King Hassan II Mosque. It is such an important monument in morocco and it stands as the third largest mosque in the world. Although its minaret stands as the tallest one in the world. At night time there's a beam of light that shines towards Mecca, the holy city. It is located right by the coast to the Atlantic ocean which makes it a beautiful scenery. I made sure I took a close look all around the mosque, it's got so much attention to detail with its beautiful doors, marbled floors and outdoor fountains with carefully made mosaic designs. The mosque has influences from the Moorish, which are the North African descents such as the berbers and the arabs.


The Mosque itself was designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau, and work began on the mosque in 1986. There's a unique part of the mosque where the mosques floor is made up of glass, and the reason behind it is so that worshippers could kneel right over the ocean itself as its built partly on the ocean.


I noticed while I was there and taking photographs that many school children were coming for trips to the mosques with their tutors, and ofcourse visitors show up here constantly. This mosque allows non-muslims to enter and have a look into the interior of the mosque which is in most cases not allowed in other mosques. Although I'm a muslim myself I did not enter as I wasn't wearing the proper clothes that cover properly and I didn't want to disrespect anyone. I did get to take some snaps from inside though from the door, which I was more than pleased about.

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