10 Sights in Rabat, Morocco (with Map and Images)

Hassan Tower or Tour Hassan (Arabic: صومعة حسان; is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat, Morocco. It was commissioned by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, the third caliph of the Almohad Caliphate, near the end of the 12th century. The tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world, and the mosque, if completed, would have been the largest in the western Muslim world. When al-Mansur died in 1199, construction on the mosque stopped. The minaret was left standing at a height of 44 meters. The rest of the mosque was also left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 348 columns being constructed. The tower, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms an important historical and tourist complex in Rabat.

Wikipedia: Hassan Tower (EN)

The Mausoleum of Mohammed V is a mausoleum located across from the Hassan Tower in Rabat, Morocco. It contains the tombs of the Moroccan king Mohammed V and his two sons, late King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah.

Wikipedia: Mausoleum of Mohammed V (EN)

The Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, abbreviated MMVI, is a contemporary and modern art museum in Rabat, Morocco which opened in 2014. It is one of fourteen museums of the National Foundation of Museums of Morocco. The museum curates modern and contemporary Moroccan and international art. The MMVI is the first large scale museum built in Morocco since independence from France in 1956. It was the first Moroccan public museum to meet International Museography Standards. The museum houses the works of 200 Moroccan artists, including Hassan Hajjaj and Ahmed Yacoubi.

Wikipedia: Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (EN), Website

The Chellah or Shalla, is a medieval fortified Muslim necropolis and ancient archeological site in Rabat, Morocco, located on the south (left) side of the Bou Regreg estuary. The earliest evidence of the site's occupation suggests that the Phoenicians established a trading emporium here in the first millennium BC. This was later the site of Sala Colonia, an ancient Roman colony in the province of Mauretania Tingitana, before it was abandoned in Late Antiquity. In the late 13th century the site began to be used as a dynastic necropolis for the Marinid dynasty. By the mid-14th century Marinid sultans had enclosed a part of the site with a new set of walls and built a religious complex inside it to accompany their mausoleums. In the 15th century the necropolis began to decline and it suffered damage over the centuries due to earthquakes and looting. Archeological excavations in the 20th century unearthed the remains of the ancient Roman town. Today the site is a tourist attraction and since 2012 it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Wikipedia: Chellah (EN)

The walls and fortifications of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, are an ample part of its historical heritage. The city has been bounded throughout its history by three main walls, built successively at the end of the twelfth century, the beginning of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, respectively under the Almohad dynasty, by the Moriscos and under the Alawite dynasty.

Wikipedia: Enceintes et fortifications de Rabat (FR)

St. Peter's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located at Golan Square in downtown Rabat, Morocco. It was erected in the early 20th century in the Art Deco style. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Peter, and is the ecclesiastical seat of the Archdiocese of Rabat.

Wikipedia: St. Peter's Cathedral, Rabat (EN)

The Musée des Oudayas is a Moroccan museum inaugurated in 1915 in the Kasbah des Oudayas in Rabat, during the French protectorate in Morocco. It is an ethnographic museum and the national museum of jewelry.

Wikipedia: Musée des Oudayas (FR)

The Mohammed V National Theatre or Mohammed V Theatre is a theatre in Morocco and the first theatre building established since its independence. Founded in 1973, it is located in the center of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, near the old medina and Avenue Mohammed V.

Wikipedia: المسرح الوطني محمد الخامس (الرباط) (AR), Website

The Moulay Slimane Mosque is a mosque in the medina of Rabat, Morocco. It was built in 1812 by the 'Alawi sultan Moulay Slimane, after whom it is named. It is the second-largest mosque of the medina north of the Andalusian wall, located at the intersection of Souika Street and Sidi Fateh Street, close to the Bab Bouiba gate. The mosque occupies a surface area of 1000 square metres and its minaret is 32 meters high. It has a traditional layout for a Moroccan mosque, with a courtyard (sahn) and an interior hypostyle prayer hall.

Wikipedia: Moulay Slimane Mosque (EN)

The Grand Theatre of Rabat is a large performing arts center under construction in Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. The building is designed by Zaha Hadid and her architectural firm Zaha Hadid Architects. Planning began for the project in 2010 and construction officially started on October 7, 2014. Completion of the project was scheduled for late 2019. The building is among the last projects designed by Zaha Hadid before her death in 2016.

Wikipedia: Grand Theatre of Rabat (EN)