The ever-evolving Atlantic port of Rabat is both an ancient imperial city and Morocco’s modern capital and administrative centre. It combines an ancient walled medina by the sea with an inland city of domes and minarets, sweeping terraces, modern structures and grand public buildings. Rabat has two of the country’s best museums, while ancient history is represented by a sedate medina and the atmospheric Chellah Necropolis filled with hidden treasures.
Don’t want to miss a thing? With the DK Morocco Guide, you’ll enjoy the very best the city has to offer. Whether you’re visiting Morocco for the first time or making a return trip, there are some things you simply shouldn’t miss out on. To make the most of your time – and to enjoy the very best this wonderfully varied city has to offer – be sure to add these experiences to your list.
Mausoleum of Mohammed
This complex on the edge of the Nouvelle Ville stands as a monument to the reign of Morocco’s Alaouite dynasty, which has held power since 1664. It comprises a mosque, a museum and the mausoleum of the father (the late Hassan II) and grandfather of the current king
Chellah Necropolis
One of Morocco’s most intriguing historical ruins, the Chellah is a sacred walled burial ground, dotted with ruined tombs, crumbling temples and imposing minarets topped with storks nests.
Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Opened in October 2014, this is the first museum in Morocco devoted to modern art. Known as the MMVI, its many exhibits are testament to the country’s ongoing contribution to the contemporary art world.
City Walls
Separated from the medina by Place du Souk el-Ghezel, the Oudaïa Kasbah is defended by thick ramparts. The city walls are set with imposing towers and bastions, which are more numerous along the stretch of the walls facing the sea and the river. The walls are surmounted by a rampart walk bordered by a low parapet; part of the rampart walk survives.
Bab Oudaïa
The main entrance into the kasbah, Bab Oudaïa towers over the cliffs that line the Bou Regreg, dominating Rabat’s ancient medina. This monumental city gate, built in dressed stone of red ochre, is considered one of the finest examples of typical Almohad architecture.
Place du Souk el-Ghezel and Rue Hadj Daoui
A convenient place to start exploring Rabat’s medina is Place du Souk el-Ghezel (Wool Market Square), so named because of the market once held here. Today, fine carpets made in the city are auctioned here every Thursday morning. Rue Hadj Daoui, southwest of Place du Souk el-Ghezel, leads into the residential area of the medina, where the streets are quieter and the houses built by the Muslim refugees from Andalusia are still visible.
National Museum of Jewellery
Formerly the Musée des Oudaia, this wonderful building reopened in 2023 following an extensive redesign. A collection dedicated to the region’s eclectic cultural heritage showcases colourful jewellery, kaftans and other key decorative pieces. The museum is divided into five exhibition rooms, one of which is wholly dedicated to the history of Morocco’s jewellery.
Rue des Consuls
Running through the medina, Rue des Consuls begins at the Wool Market in the north and leads towards the Andalusian Wall in the south. Up to the time of the Protectorate, this street was where all foreign consuls in Rabat lived. Covered with rushes and a glass roof, the street is lined with the shops of crafters and traders, making it the liveliest quarter in the medina.
Rue Souk es-Sebat
This thoroughfare begins at the Great Mosque and ends at Bab el-Bhar (Gate of the Sea), crossing Rue des Consuls. Covered by a rush trellis, this lively street is packed with leatherworkers, jewellers, fabric merchants and traders in all sorts of other goods.
Rue Souïka
Running southwest from Rue Souk es-Sebat, Rue Souïka (Little Souk Street) is the main artery through the medina. Lined with busy restaurants and small shops selling all manner of goods, the street throngs with people most of the day, the air fragranced with the heady perfume of the spice merchants’ wares. At the intersection with Rue de Bab Chellah stands the Great Mosque, built between the 13th and 16th centuries and restored during the Alaouite period. Opposite the mosque is a 14th-century fountain with a pediment of intersecting arches.
Andalusian Wall
In the 17th century, Muslim refugees from Andalusia found the medina undefended and so encircled it with a defensive wall. Named for its builders, the Andalusian Wall stands about 5 m (16 ft) high and runs in a straight line for more than 1,400 m (4,595 ft) from Bab el-Had (Sunday Gate) in the west to the borj (small fort) of Sidi Makhlouf in the east.
Hassan Tower
For more than eight centuries, the Hassan Tower has stood on the hill overlooking Wadi Bou Regreg. Best seen as you approach Rabat by the bridge from Salé, it is one of the city’s most prestigious monuments and a great emblem of Rabat. The construction of this gigantic mosque, of dimensions quite out of proportion with the population of Rabat at the time, suggests that the Almohad ruler had grand intentions to make the city his new imperial capital. An alternative interpretation is that the Almohads were attempting to rival the magnificent Great Mosque of Córdoba, the former capital of the Islamic kingdom in the West. Either way, the unfinished mosque fell into disrepair and all but the mosque’s minaret was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755. It was the largest religious building in the Muslim West, inferior only to the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. The minaret, a square-sided tower, was to have surpassed the height of the Koutoubia Mosque and the Giralda in Seville, but it was never completed. It was from the Hassan Tower that Mohammed V conducted the first Friday prayers after independence.
Ville Nouvelle
Marshal Lyautey and the architects Prost and Ecochard built a new town in the empty part of the extensive area enclosed by the Almohad walls. Laying out wide boulevards and green spaces, they created a pleasant town with a spacious feel. Avenue Mohammed V, the main avenue, runs from the medina to the ElSouna Mosque, or Great Mosque. The avenue is lined with residential blocks and the Bank of Morocco, housing the Musée Bank Al Maghrib, which displays a coin collection, plus Moroccan and Orientalist paintings.
Musée de l’Histoire et des Civilisations
Formerly known as the Musée Archéologique, this institution reopened in 2017 with a new name following a period of modernization. It holds the most extensive collection of archaeological artifacts in the country, displayed in a building constructed in the 1920s under French rule.
Bab el-Rouah
A sturdy and imposing Almohad gateway, Bab elRouah, the Gate of the Winds, dates from the same period as Bab Oudaïa. The entrance is decorated with the outline of two horseshoe arches carved into the stone and surrounded by a band of Kufic calligraphy. The interior contains four rooms with elegant domes, now used for exhibitions.
Dar el-Makhzen
An extensive complex enclosed within its own walls, the Dar el-Makhzen (royal palace) is inhabited by about 2,000 people. Although members of the public are forbidden from entering the palace itself, the exterior is of interest in its own right. The intricate façade of Dar el-Makhzen intrigues visitors with its arched brass gate detailed with mosaic tilework and carved cedar wood.
