We were disappointed with the Roman ruins of Volubilis, and not quite sure what to do at the Moroccan Islamic pilgrimage site of Moulay Idriss (answer: look from afar then move on). The imperial city of Meknès looked potentially interesting, but at midday (everything closes between 12 and 3 at least) on a Friday (everything closes on Friday for the major prayers of the Islamic week), we didn’t really get to investigate.
Then we got to Casablanca. What a hole!! The worst of over-sized developing country cities. A grey, grotty, grimy, traffic-choked, poverty-stricken place with nothing to recommend it but:
- a whopping great mosque – worth a detour but disturbing given that it cost half a billion dollars and is located on cleared slums and is largely surrounded by slums
- a major airport for getting out of the place, which we used to get to Paris – so much nicer!
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