The grandiose minaret travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Morocco is the most exotic country within easy reach of the United Kingdom, yet it remains enigmatic, uncrowded and full of the mysteries of the “east”. Rabat is the capital of Morocco with an ever-growing population of nearly one million people!

Hassan Tower or Tour Hassan (Arabic) is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat, Morocco. Begun in 1195, the tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, also intended to be the world’s largest. Begun in 1195, the minaret was intended to be the largest in the Muslim world, soaring some 86m (260ft) into the sky. Construction was abandoned, however, upon the death of the sultan, Yacoub al-Mansour, in 1199 and the tower instead rises to just 44m. Tour Hassan is located along the banks of Bou Regreg River.
The mosque should have been the largest of the Islamic world : 312 columns and 42 marble pillars. It would have been larger than the Giralda of Seville and the Koutoubia of Marrakesh. When Sultan Yacoun El Mansour died in 1199, the half finished mosque was abandoned. The rest of the mosque was also left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 200 columns being constructed.

The Mausoleum, a beautiful white marble building designed by the Vietnamese architect Vo Toan and built in the 1960’s, houses the tomb of King Mohamed V and some of his family, namely his son, King Hassan II. Mohamed V figure is much respected in Morocco because he his considered the main responsible for the independence from the French, who effectively ruled the country since the late 19th century until 1956. The tower, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohamed-5, forms the most important historical and tourist complex in Rabat.