What is The Capital of Morocco ?
Rabat :
Rabat is the capital of Morocco and the second largest city in the country after Casablanca .
It is located on the coast Atlantic , on the left bank of the mouth of Bouregreg , opposite the town of Salé . Therefore, one and one are sometimes called "twin cities ".
The city was founded in 1150 by the Almohads , who built a citadel (now Oudayas Kasbah ), a mosque and a residence. It was then called a ribat (a fortress). The current name comes from Ribat Al Fath, "Camp Victory". Later, the small-son of Al-Mumin - Ya'qub al-Mansur - expanded and completed the city, including the surrounding walls. Subsequently, she served as a basis for exports in Almohad Andalusia .
After 1269 , when Merinids chose Fez as its capital, Rabat entered a period of decline. Thus, the Explorer Moorish Hassan al-Wazzan reported that there remained only 100 inhabited houses in 1515 . In 1609 , following the expulsion decree of Philip III , 13 000 Moors found refuge there, thus revitalizing the city .
In 1912 , Lyautey made Rabat the seat of the Resident-General and the capital of the French protectorate in Morocco . In 1956 , the independence of Morocco, the city remained the capital of the country.
History :
The first urban track in Rabat is located at the current Oudaïas kasbah , the Almoravids , who created a hard to organize attacks against tribes Masmouda of Berghouata . The dynasty of the Almohades , a native of the High Atlas and after tribes Berber of Masmouda , had built in 1150 , instead of the old fort Senhadji of Almoravid , a ribat (or fortress), a gathering place for fighters faith, no step in the epic for the Almohad conquest of Andalusia and control the rest of the Maghreb . Yacoub el-Mansour said interest in developing, as to the position of Bouregreg , larger projects . Helped many captives brought from Spain during the Battle of Alarcos , he built the walls of the future capital and start, near the river, a mosque to grandiose proportions, but it was not completed; stands alone its minaret which served as a landmark for navigators for crossing the city. So entrenched camp was first applied the name Rbat of Sale, then that of Rbat El-Fath, after the victory of Almohad armies in Spain.
This construction, which corresponds roughly to the western part of the current Oudaïas Kasbah, was called both Ribat al Fath ("Camp Victory "), To commemorate the victories Almohads, and al-Mahdiyya, in memory of Muhammad ibn al-Mahdi Tumart, founder of the Almohad movement. From Ribat of Abd al-Mumin , his son Abu Yusuf Yaqub and his grand-son Yacoub el-Mansour , heirs to an empire ranging from Castile to Tripoli , a city built impressive, covering more than four hundred hectares, imposing city walls pierced by monumental gateways and was to be endowed with a gigantic mosque, the Hassan Tower (unfinished due to earthquake), but which had been one of the greatest shrines of the Muslim world .
Thus, although Ribat al Fath never received the public that its walls could shelter (mostly Masmouda the High Atlas, the main directions of the city were drawn. The walls and monumental gates of the era show TODAY ' Even today the extent of the Almohad town, and also the minaret remains of the mosque of Hassan, a site whose sanctity has been enhanced and upgraded by the construction of the Mohammed V mausoleum, the symbol of filial piety which, of exceptional decoration, collective work of art, is a tribute to the king who rests and a testament to the revival of traditional crafts.
The end of the Almohad period, the mid- thirteenth century until the early seventeenth century , the importance of Rabat diminished considerably.
Dynasty zénète of Merinids founded the Jama 'El Kbir, and other streets, all located in the heart of the medina today. The location of this public facility to suggest that city life was not concentrated only in the immediate vicinity of the kasbah and several districts of the medina were inhabited now.
From 1610 , Rabat received a large population of Muslim refugees driven out of Al-Andalus , who settled in the Kasbah and within the Almohade, in the northwestern part, they demarcated and patronized by a new wall, the wall Andalusian. The descendants of these Andalusians, who often bear names such as Andalusian Guédira, Mouline (Molina), Bargach (Vargas), Karrakchou (Carracso / Carrasco), Moreno, Balafrej (Palafres), Ronda, Tamourro (Chamorro), etc.., are still considered the Rbatis called "native".
For several decades, Rabat, then known of Europe under the name of Salt-le-Neuf, was the seat of a small maritime republic, the Republic of Bouregreg , until the advent of Alawites who s 'seized the estuary in 1666. Its main activity was then running at sea against the Christians, who gave him all of his resources, and Salt-le-Neuf became the first port of Morocco.
In 1912, under the French protectorate , General Lyautey decided to move the capital from Fez to Rabat because of the strong Berber unrest that reigned at Fez). Sultan Moulay Youssef moved there a few months later. In 1913, Lyautey hired Henri Prost to draw the "New Town ".
The end of World War II until 1963, the United States there disposèrent a military airbase.
The municipal elections of 2009 , the Islamist PJD came top .
Doors and Enclosures :
Protecting the south and west faces of the city, an important arena was built by the Almohads in the late twelfth century . It consists of two long straight walls, intersecting at an acute angle, with a total length of over five kilometers, with a thickness of more than two meters and an average height of about eight meters .
And was confined an area of nearly four hundred and twenty acres, encompassing the upper plateau which dominates the Chella , to ensure, in case of attack, the security of the lower parts of the city. The west wall was pierced by four gates, at fairly regular intervals: Bab El Alou Bab El Had, Bab er-Ruah and Bab El-Hdid, the latter being included in the current Royal Palace. The south wall is included in a single, Bab Zaer. Like most of the walls built by the Almohads, this wall built of high strength concrete, lime-rich fat, has admirably resisted. Regularly flanked by square towers, the curtain is crowned by a walkway, lined on the outside of a parapet with battlements wearing pyramidions .
ab Er-Ruach, a masterpiece of aesthetic monumental stone, deploys, as the gate of the Kasbah, a decorative tracery around the opening in the shape of horseshoe arch inscribed in a rectangular frame. As in Bab Agnaou to Marrakech , large arches resume, by expanding the movement of the arc of the door, a halo surrounding the winding to sharp points, topped by a wide frieze Kufic inscription.
In the early seventeenth century , Muslim refugees expelled from Spain settled in the Kasbah and in some a hundred acres within the Almohade, they define the building a new wall. Starting near Bab El-Had, the latter connects the curtain of the twelfth century to the cliff overlooking the Bouregreg at Borj Sidi Makhlouf. Straight and flanked by oblong towers, the Andalusian wall that extended more than 1400 meters high on average was five meters wide and over 1, 5 meters. It was pierced by three doors: Bab-Tben And (now shot, and was located near present municipal market), Bab-El-Bab Bouiba and Chella .
Moreover, in the early nineteenth century , a new outer wall, with a total length of 4,300 meters, was built. It extended south to Almohade and doubled in the west to the Atlantic Ocean, thereby enclosing a total area of over 840 hectares. This fortification had an average height of 4 meters and a thickness slightly less than 1 meter. Three doors in total there were breakthroughs: Bab El-Qebibât, Tamesna Bab and Bab Marrakech. This rampart Alawi was largely destroyed to facilitate development of the European city during the Protectorate . From the main gates of the Medina, left the roads linking such, Rabat to Casablanca and Marrakech , Rabat also Rommani and Marrakech .
On the outskirts of the Almohade stood weekly markets, such as that of Souq El-Had, near the door of the same name. Moreover, between the enclosure and the Alawite Almohad wall were located in the south, Agdal, linked to the Palais Royal and the north of the orange gardens including fruit, prized for their quality, were exported to Europe , as attested by many archival documents.
The neighborhoods of Rabat :
The heart of the city consists of three parts: the Medina (old town), the Oudayas and Hassan, both located to meet the Bouregreg and the Atlantic Ocean.
To the west, and along the seashore, there are a series of neighborhoods: First, around the ramparts, the old quarters of the ocean and Orange (popular and middle class). In addition, a succession of mostly popular neighborhoods: Diour Jamaa, Akkari, Yacoub El Mansour, Massira and Hay el Fath are the main parts of this axis. Hay el Fath, which ends this succession, moving towards a kind of middle class attendance.
To the east, along the Bouregreg, there are neighborhoods Youssoufia, Douar el Hajja, Mabella, Taqaddoum, Hay Nahda, Aviation, Romani (working and middle classes).
Between these two axis, going from north to south, there are three main areas (middle class to very easy): Agdal (district buildings lively mixing residential and commercial functions, predominantly to the middle class to wealthy), Hay Riad (affluent villas which has seen a surge of momentum since the 2000s, it tends to become the new business center flap; offices and seats of public and private companies settled there (Morocco Telecom, CGI ...), and Souissi (very easy neighborhood, mostly residential). outskirts of Souissi, in continuity, the district of Ambassadors. These neighborhoods are characterized by a large urbanization plans, airy, often wooded, remote mists of the ocean, in contrast to the islets tighter and dense that surround them.
