Koutoubia Mosque- A mosque with a story tale

Pictures I took of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, Morocco

The Koutoubia Mosque is a beautiful mosque I went to visit in Marrakech, when I was in Morocco this summer. It has got the Koutoubia gardens, with orange trees, and flowers surrounding the mosque too, which makes it a relaxing and beautiful environment to be in. The name Koutob comes from the Arabic word meaning books, as I have been told it used to be surrounded by book sellers. It is the largest mosque in its town. It was built in 1147, but then it had to deconstructed and built all over again because it wasn't headed in the direction of the holy city of Mecca, where the muslims turn to pray towards. It has influences from the Moorish, just like King Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. For me to compare I would say the Kotoubia mosque looked much older, as it is. The Minaret stands 70m tall, and it consists of six rooms built on top of one another. At the top of the Minaret are four golden globes. At the time of construction there were only meant to be three golden globes at the top of the minaret. However, there's an interesting story about the fourth golden globe. The wife of Ysaub El Mansour, who was the ruler of Morocco at the time, had eaten a grape during the fasting period of Ramadan, and so had felt guilty for breaking her fast that she decided to collect all her golden jewellery, melt it and then finally create a fourth golden globe on the top of the minaret.

Rialto Cinema-Art Deco

When I was in Casablanca I heard a lot about this movie theather, and thought I would have to visit it while I was there. It's an art deco cinema, which was built in 1930. It proudly stands as one of the 100 movie theaters left in the country. When I went inside, it looked quite small but I wouldn't know for sure as I didn't catch a movie/documentary because they were only playing in French. On the walls inside was many pictures hung of famous actors all in black and white, which shows how much history this place has.

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.