Entering Africa-Dar el Beida

Dar el Beida is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean.

Release time : 2019-08-15 11:18:40

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Dar el Beida is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean.

Dar el Beida is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It's also the biggest city in the Maghreb. Dar el Beida is considered the economic capital of Morocco because it is the heart of Moroccan business; the political capital is Rabat.

Dar el Beida hosts headquarters and main industrial facilities for the leading Moroccan and international companies based in Morocco. Industrial statistics show Dar el Beida retains its historical position as the main industrial zone of the country. The Port of Dar el Beida is one of the largest artificial ports in the world, and the largest port of North Africa. It is also the primary naval base for the Royal Moroccan Navy.

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Top choice mosque in Dar el Beida. This flamboyant building was built at enormous expense to commemorate the former king's 60th birthday. Set on an outcrop jutting over the ocean and with a 210m-tall minaret that serves as the city's major landmark, it is a showcase of the very best Moroccan artisanship: hand-carved stone and wood, intricate marble flooring and inlay, gilded cedar ceilings and exquisite zellige(geometric mosaic tilework) abound. Multilanguage guided tours of the interior are conducted outside prayer times for modestly clad visitors.

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The mosque is the largest in Africa and can accommodate 105,000 worshippers. Built and partially funded by King Hassan II (the remaining funds were gathered through a somewhat controversial public subscription process), the mosque complex was designed by French architect Michel Pinseau, took six years to build and was completed in 1993. Its dramatic location overhanging the ocean waves echoes verse from the Quran, which states that God’s throne was built upon the water. Believers pray on a centrally heated floor, and can see the Atlantic breaking over the rocks underneath the glass floor in the basement and feel the sunlight through the retractable roof.

The size and elaborate decoration of the prayer hall is simply spectacular. A team of more than 6000 master craftspeople was assembled to work on the mosque, delicately carving intricate patterns and designs in cedar from the Middle Atlas and pink granite from Agadir. The gates were made from brass and titanium, and the ablution fountains in the basement, which are shaped like huge lotus flowers, were carved from local marble.

To see the interior visitors must be ‘decently and respectfully dressed’ (knees and upper arms need to be covered); women do not require a headscarf. Hour-long tours are conducted in French, English, German and Spanish, and take in the prayer hall, subterranean ablutions rooms and never-used hammam.