TRAVEL TUESDAY #143 - GRAND MOSQUE, MOROCCO

“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.” - Mahatma Gandhi 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

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The Hassan II Mosque or Grande Mosquée Hassan II (Arabic: مسجد الحسن الثاني‎; colloquially the “Casablanca Hajj”) is a mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. It is the largest mosque in Morocco, the second largest in Africa, and the 5th largest in the world. Its minaret is the world’s tallest at 210 metres. Completed in 1993, it was designed by Michel Pinseau and built by Bouygues.

The minaret is 60 stories high topped by a laser, the light from which is directed towards Mecca. The mosque stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic Ocean; worshippers can pray over the sea but there is no glass floor looking into the sea. The walls are of hand-crafted marble and the roof is retractable. A maximum of 105,000 worshippers can gather together for prayer: 25,000 inside the mosque hall and another 80,000 on the mosque’s outside ground.

Apart from the mosque, other structures in the area are a madrasa (Islamic school), hammams (bathhouses), a museum on Moroccan history, conference halls, and a very large library said to be the “most comprehensive in the Islamic world”. The 41 fountains in the courtyard are all well decorated. The garden around the mosque is well-tended and is a popular location for family picnics. The traditionally designed madrasa occupies an area of 4,840 square metres including the basement. Two stories in height, it is constructed in a semi-circular shape, with abutting qibla wall and the mihrab section. 

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme, 
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.