CASABLANCA THE GUIDING CITY - Casablanca

60% of Morocco's companies are based in Casablanca, included all those in the high-tech sector. The city consumes 30% of the natio electricity and is the headquarters of practically all the major banks. Casablanca is where everything happens.
It has always been an avant-garde city, ifs strength lying in an ability to take advantage of advances made in technology and modernism, enriching them with the best of Moroccan tradition to cr< ifs own individual style. At the beginning of the century Casablanca: already adopted a plan of urban development to channel ifs extraordi; growth. The centre is the hub of a series of spacious avenues spread.1 out in a,star formation, each lihed with elegant buildings that are an admirable blend of Art Deco and Neo-Moorish styles, featuring cup belvederes, columns, cedarwood balconies and turrets.
Since Casablanda hflS no natural harbour, the fantastic 3180 r long Moulay Youssef jetty was constructed to create Morocco's pre port and the fourth in Africa.
The Mohamed V International Airport, the country's largest, reflects the style of the city. Recently completed, the ultra modern arrivaI area is a monument to traditional architecture.
How can one possibly describe the Hassan II Mosque? From the air, it dominates the city. Built on the edge of the ocean, it rises like some kind of divine ship. But if its divinity cornes from heaven, its greatnes and its beauty are the work of men who gave it ail the love, art and technology witin their power
The prayer hall can accommodate 25 000 of the faithful, and the esplanade 80 000 more. The traditional Moroccan architecture here reaches its zenith with the use of ultra-sophisticated technology. 3 300 craftsmen from ail over the Kingdom worked together to build this monument on pile foundations covering 2 hectares, erect the world's tallest minaret (200 metres), install the retractable roof which, in three minutes, can transform the prayer hall into a magnificent patio, sculpt 10 000 square metres of decorations, 67 000 square metres of plaster, 53 000 square metres of wood...
The Great Hassan II Mosque is quite simply dazzling.